Taiwan’s Non-life Premiums Rise On Improved Underwriting Practices - AM Best

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 (Bernama) -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best in its new report, has unveiled that Taiwan’s domestic non-life insurance premium continued to increase in 2024, growing 10.5 per cent to reach TWD 278.5 billion (US$9.2 billion). (US$1=RM4.23)

The Best’s Market Segment Report, “Taiwan Non-Life Segment’s Operating Performance Supported by Tighter Underwriting Guidelines”, also notes that this segment’s overall capital and surplus level has continued to improve and crossed the TWD 150 billion mark last year.

The driving force of Taiwan’s non-life segment remains motor insurance, particularly voluntary motor, which contributed close to half of the segment’s direct written premiums in 2024, despite the slightly slower overall premium growth last year, partly due to subdued growth in new car sales during 2024 and through the first quarter of 2025.

In order to bolster electric vehicle (EV) coverage, AM Best in a statement said Taiwan’s insurance regulator implemented standardised EV motor policy terms in the second half of 2024.

“However, the motor segment remains cautious over expanding in this product line while insurers continue to accumulate data and claims experience to aid pricing sophistication,” said AM Best director, James Chan.

The combined gross written premiums of AM Best’s eight rated non-life insurers rose 10.6 per cent to TWD 192.8 billion in 2024, similar to the market’s growth of 10.5 per cent reported by all 14 domestic non-life insurers.

According to the report, Taiwan’s non-life insurance segment achieved significant improvement in operating profitability for 2023 and 2024.

Notably, following a year of historically poor performance in 2022, the market achieved a profit turnaround in 2023, due to the release of pandemic insurance-related reserves and the efforts of non-life insurers to bolster underwriting guidelines.

-- BERNAMA