General Insurance Industry Records Moderate Growth Of 3 Per Cent In First-Half 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- The general insurance industry recorded moderate growth of three per cent for the first six months of this year at US$2.3 billion (RM9.34 billion) from US$2.24 billion (RM9.07 billion) in the same period of 2015. General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) Chief Executive Officer, Mark Lim, said the motor insurance grew by 0.7 per cent to US$1.01 billion (RM4.12 billion), to maintain its major share of the overall market at 44.1 per cent, versus the RM4.09 billion in the same period last year. "The second largest market share, fire insurance with 18.7 per cent, rose by 8.9 per cent during the first half of 2016 to rake in a premium of US$433.08 million (US$1.75 billion)," he told a media briefing on the general insurance's 2016 first-half performance here Wednesday. He said the industry also achieved a higher underwriting profit of RM836 million during the first half of this year compared with RM754 million in the same period 2015. Moving forward, Lim said, the phased liberalisation of the motor and fire tariffs announced by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM or Malaysia's Central Bank) will transform business models of these two major classes which comprised 63 per cent of the domestic general insurance business. He said beginning July 1, 2016, any new motor and fire products introduced by insurers would be subjected to approval by PIAM on the policy wordings, definitions and terminologies. "Subsequent approval from BNM on the pricing will be required before they are launched. PIAM has established and Industry Product Review Board to fulfill this role," he said. Meanwhile, PIAM's Chairman, Antony Lee Fook Weng, said the association was maintaining its full-year industry growth forecast of between 2.5-3.5 per cent for 2016, base on uncertainty in the economy. "I think it (growth rate) would be similar to what we've seen in the first half, might be a it lower, but then it depends on a lot of microeconomic factors. "Obviously the budget (2017) is coming up, and it's interesting to see what gets to be announced (in relation of insurance industry) but at the moment we are maintaining our earlier target," he said. --BERNAMA