RBNZ to publish quarterly stats on insurance industry

The newly published statistics provide aggregated financial data provided by licensed insurers

By Kelly Gregor

28 Feb 2018

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) announced yesterday it had begun publishing quarterly statistics that will provide insights into the structure and activities of the insurance industry.

The newly published statistics provide aggregated financial data provided by licensed insurers, RBNZ said.

Industry analysis will be sourced from the RBNZ’s Quarterly Insurer Survey. The survey covers 28 out of 88 licensed insurers, which currently account for just under 90% of assets and premiums of the insurance industry as a whole.

RBNZ Head of Macro Financial Stability Bernard Hodgetts said new statistics will help provide insights into the insurance industry’s financial performance and position in New Zealand.

“New Zealand’s private insurance sector is relatively small by international standards. This reflects a number of factors, including the comparatively large role of government in the provision of social insurance services in New Zealand, and the small extent to which insurance products are part of New Zealand’s retirement savings infrastructure,” Hodgetts said.

Statistics manager Steffi Schuster said these larger insurers earned premiums of $9 billion over the year to September 2017, while gross claims were $8 billion. “These insurers held assets worth $21 billion and liabilities of $14 billion at the end of September 2017.”

Schuster said the release of the new set of statistics were part of a multi-year initiative towards providing comprehensive data on the New Zealand insurance industry. She added that RBNZ plans to expand the range of available statistics over time.

RBNZ licenses and supervises insurers operating in New Zealand subject to the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010.

Insurance provided by government entities such as Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and Earthquake Commission (EQC) is not subject to the Act. RBNZ collects data from licensed insurers only.