27 February 2018
New statistics on the insurance sector
The Reserve Bank has today begun publishing new quarterly statistics that will provide insights into the structure and
activities of the insurance industry.
The newly published statistics provide aggregated financial data provided by licensed insurers.
Head of Macro Financial Stability, Bernard Hodgetts, said that new statistics will help provide insights into the
insurance industry’s financial performance and position in New Zealand.
“New Zealand’s private insurance sector is relatively small by international standards. This reflects a number of
factors, including the comparatively large role of government in the provision of social insurance services in New
Zealand, and the small extent to which insurance products are part of New Zealand’s retirement savings infrastructure.”
The Reserve Bank licenses and supervises insurers operating in New Zealand subject to the Insurance (Prudential
Supervision) Act 2010. Insurance provided by government entities such as Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and
Earthquake Commission (EQC) is not subject to the Act. The Reserve Bank collects data from licensed insurers only.
Today’s release provides industry analysis sourced from the Reserve Bank’s Quarterly Insurer Survey. The survey covers
28 out of 88 licensed insurers which currently account for just under 90% of assets and premiums of the insurance
industry as a whole.
Statistics manager Steffi Schuster said that these larger insurers earned premiums of $9 billion over the year to
September 2017, while gross claims were $8 billion. “These insurers held assets worth $21 billion and liabilities of $14
billion at the end of September 2017.”
“The release today of a new set of statistics is part of a multi-year initiative towards providing comprehensive data on
the New Zealand insurance industry. The Reserve Bank plans to expand the range of available statistics over time.”
New insurance statistics
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