AM BEST MAINTAINS STABLE OUTLOOK ON TAIWAN'S NON-LIFE INSURANCE MARKET

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best is maintaining a stable market segment outlook on Taiwan’s non-life insurance segment, citing robust underwriting and investment performance in 2020 and carriers’ healthy risk-adjusted capitalisation levels.

The Best’s Market Segment Report titled, ‘Market Segment Outlook: Taiwan Non-Life Insurance’, notes Taiwan has managed for the most part to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control, relative to its peers, and registered real GDP growth of 3.1 per cent in 2020.

The pandemic had limited impact to Taiwan’s non-life insurance market, which experienced direct premium written (DPW) growth of 6.2 per cent in 2020, driven by growth in the motor and fire insurance business lines.

According to a statement, the report notes that pandemic-related insurance products, including pandemic protection and vaccination protection products, gained significant traction in 2021, with DPW from these products contributing materially to non-life insurance growth in the first half of the year.

Although non-life companies have benefited from relatively benign natural catastrophe experiences in recent years, Taiwan remains geographically prone to typhoons and earthquakes, which could subject insurers’ technical results to volatility.

However, the overall underwriting performance of the market has been stable, with a five-year average net combined ratio of 95.6 per cent.

AM Best also notes that the risk-adjusted capitalisation of most players in Taiwan’s non-life insurance market is sufficient, and is viewed as resilient and able to withstand extreme scenarios.

For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA