Townsville Floods, Sydney hailstorm sink insurance industry earnings

The Australian insurance industry’s underwriting profit fell by 32.4% to $2.8bn in the year to 31 March as earnings took a severe hit from the Townsville floods and Sydney hailstorm along with a strengthening of claims reserves in professional indemnity and mortgage classes the latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) figures show.

While insurers achieved a 6.1% rise in gross earned premium to $48bn, gross incurred claims recorded a much bigger increase of just shy of 25% to $36.9bn.

In a separate report APRA provided individual insurer’s earnings covering various financial years across 12 months to the 31 December. The results of the key insurers in alphabetical order were:

AIG Australia had $806m in gross earned premium and $802m in gross incurred claims

Allianz Australia had $4.9bn in gross earned premium and $3.8bn in gross incurred claims

IAG (CGU,NRMA,SGIO,AMI,Lumley) had $11.5bn in gross earned premium and $8bn in gross incurred claims

QBE Insurance had $18.2bn in gross earned premium and $6.53bn in gross incurred claims

Suncorp had $9.46bn in gross earned premium and $6.53bn in gross incurred claims

Of the major reinsurers operating in Australia Munich Re had $1.47bn in gross earned premium and $910m in gross incurred claims while Swiss Re recorded almost $1.1bn in gross earned premium and $443m in gross incurred claims.