Life insurance: Weighted new business premiums fall 6% in Q3

SINGAPORE'S life insurance industry posted a 6 per cent decline in the third-quarter weighted new business premiums for 2014 to S$705.4 million from a year ago.

The decline was attributable to an 18 per cent fall in weighted annual premiums to S$446.2 million compared with the same period last year, even as weighted single premiums rose. Weighted single premiums - policies where consumers pay only a one-time premium - climbed 24 per cent to S$259.2 million in the third quarter of 2014.

For the first nine months of the year, total weighted new business premiums slid one per cent to about S$2.02 billion from the year-ago period, dragged by a 9 per cent drop in weighted annual premiums.

This, as the spike in premiums due to the re-pricing of Integrated Shield Plans had tapered off, said the Life Insurance Association Singapore, which added that the re-pricing was conducted in March last year for renewal business.