$819 million in insurance premiums in 2018
NASSAU, BAHAMAS – More than $819 million in insurance premiums was generated within the domestic insurance sector in 2018, up 5.5 per cent over 2017, the Insurance Commission has revealed.
The insurance regulator’s 2018 report was tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday.
Superintendent of Insurance, Michelle Fields, wrote: “The insurance sector continues to be a strong contributor to the economy of The Bahamas, regenerating more than $819.8 million in insurance premiums within the domestic insurance sector, up by 5.5 per cent over 2017.
“This accounts for approximately 6.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and effects the insurance sector penetration rate.”
According to the report, at the end of 2018 Insurance Commission registrants included, eleven long term insurers, seventeen general insurers, thirty-two external insurers and intermediaries, fifty-seven agents and brokers, twenty-one sub agents, eleven adjusters and firms and six hundred and eighty-three sales persons.
“There were seventeen property and casualty insurers in the local market at the end of 2018 of which seven were locally incorporated including two subsidiaries of foreign companies and ten were branches of foreign insurance companies,” the report noted.
“General insurers underwrote gross premiums of $362 million and net premiums of $11 million, a modest increase of four per cent and three per cent respectively, compared to 2017.
It read: “Sixty-seven per cent of gross premium was derived from property line of business followed by twenty per cent from motor.”
According to the report, general insurers collectively earned a net income of $14.5 million compared to the $17.8 million experienced in 2017.
The decline in net income was primarily due to the seventy-one 71 per cent reduction in investment income and thirty-one per cent increase in administrative expenses. The sectors total investment portfolio decreased marginally by two per cent.
