Total second-quarter U.S. sales of individual fixed annuities, including equity-indexed, declined 30% from the same period a year ago, to about $19.4 billion, according to Beacon Research and the Insured Retirement Institute. The second quarter marks the fourth consecutive quarter that sales dropped year over year. For the first six months of this year, sales [...]

Premium revenue insurers in the Chinese market captured in the first seven months of this year reached about CNY 903.91 billion, soaring 33.19 percent year on year, according to statistics the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), the top Chinese insurance regulator, released on August 23. In the property insurance sector, the proportion of the premium [...]

Insurance stocks showed some weak activities last week at the Karachi stock exchange as 3.6 million shares traded together in life and non life insurance stocks. Pakistan reinsurance was the volume leader with 1.67 million shares followed by Adamjee Insurance with 1.17 million shares. Top gainers of the week include Atlas Insurance which increased by [...]

Aeon life insurance Co., Ltd., one of the newborn insurance firms in China, opened a branch in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, on Wednesday, becoming the first China-invested national life insurer to make a debut in the northeastern part of the country. The new branch, the sixth provincial division that Aeon Life has launched since it came [...]

 Reports said that the life insurance firm had inked a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Tianmen Rural Commercial Bank that is under construction and was likely to hold a 20% stake in the newborn. It the deal is successful, Taikang Life is to become the first insurance firm taking a stake in a rural commercial [...]

Shares in Australia’s AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP) slipped 4.5 per cent to the lowest in more than a year after the wealth manager increased first-half profit 17 per cent and expressed caution about the global economic outlook and ongoing market volatility. The shares fell 24 cents, or 4.51 per cent, to $5.08 by 1024 AEST, the [...]

South Korea’s insurance firms are on pace to report record high earnings this year after impressive results in the first quarter of fiscal 2010, led by top life insurer Samsung life insurance Co. (KSE:032830), sources said Thursday. Samsung Life is widely predicted to chalk up a net income of over 1 trillion won (US$849.9 billion) [...]

India’s life insurance Corporation (LIC) on Tuesday said it is aiming at an over four-fold jump in new business income to Rs 5,000 crore (US$1.1 billion) in the current fiscal year through bank tie-ups, among other initiatives. “The corporation collected a first-year premium of Rs 1,140 crore last year from bancassurance and alternate channels. This [...]

New China life insurance Company Limited achieved premium revenue of more than CNY 54 billion in the first half of 2010, growing 68% over the same period of a year earlier. The insurance firm captured a more than 10% market share and took the third place among peers in the nation by comprehensive indicators. By [...]

The stock market downturn and the strong yen have sharply pushed down paper gains on shareholdings at life insurers in Japan, severely impacting their finances. The 13 major life insurance groups had 2.38 trillion yen (US$27.7 billion) in total unrealized capital gains on holdings of domestic stocks as of June 30, according to April-June earnings [...]

Sun Life Everbright life insurance Co., Ltd. recently received regulatory approval for direct investment in the Chinese stock market. Four small- and mid-sized insurers including Sunshine Insurance Group Corporation Limited, Changjiang Pension Insurance Co., Ltd., Union life insurance Co., Ltd. and Anbang Property & casualty insurance Company Ltd. were granted such approval at the beginning [...]