Malaysia Insurance News

Insurance News of Malaysia

Chinese insurance companies' premium revenue exceeded CNY1.01 trillion (US$158 billion) in total for the first eight months of 2011, the CIRC says on its website. The figure indicates that revenue performance was flat from January to August. Last year, the country's insurance industry collected a combined CNY1.01 trillion in insurance premiums in the first eight months of 2010, up 33% y-o-y. For the January to August period this year, premium income from property insurance business rose by 13% to CNY308.2 billion, while life insurance premium income dipped by 5% to CNY698.8 billion, according to the CIRC. The industry's total assets stood at CNY5.64 trillion. Last year, premiums from life insurance grew to CNY738.07 billion during the January-August period, while those collected by the property and casualty sector jumped to CNY271.83 billion. The life insurance industry's performance in the year to date this year is attributed to measures introduced last November restricting the sale of insurance products in bank branches. Insurers are barred from stationing their salespersons at bank branches. Only bank staff with an insurance agent's licence can sell policies in the branches which are also restricted to marketing the products of no more than three insurance companies at any one time.