The profit was up 17 per cent from the previous year’s profit of $2.6 billion, according to Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) quarterly life insurance statistics, released yesterday.
The March 2013 quarter profit of $723 million was up 4.8 per cent from the December 2012 quarter profit of $690 million.
The APRA statistics also revealed that total revenue for the life sector was $40.3 billion – more than double the previous year’s figure of $19.8 billion.
Total revenue mainly comprised investment revenue of $25.4 billion, which consisted of $10.4 billion in investment income and $15 billion in realised/unrealised gains.
The non-investment component of revenue was dominated by net policy revenue of $12.2 billion, along with $2.5 billion in management service fees and $192 million in other revenue.
The industry held total assets of $252.9 billion as at 31 March 2013 – up 6 per cent on the previous year.
Of the industry’s total assets, 47 per cent was invested in equities as at 31 March 2013, 24.8 per cent was invested in debt securities, 6.7 per cent was in investment properties, 6.3 per cent was in cash and 4.7 per cent was in other assets.
The life industry had total liabilities of $232.2 billion as at 31 March 2013, of which 93.6 per cent were gross policy liabilities.
Risk products provided a net profit after tax of $246 million to the industry for the quarter ended 31 March 2013. Individual risk products contributed $229 million and group risk products contributed $18 million.
