Published a week back, S&P has Allianz SE, ($807 billion, 4.8%), China Life Insurance Co. ($685 billion, 3.9%) and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co.($686 billion,13.3 %) of China Ltd. as the three largest life insurance companies in the world, according to a ranking by S&P Global Market Intelligence
New York: India’s life insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation has retained its 4th position among `Top 50 global life insurers’ prepared by international rating agency Standard & Poor’s(S&P) for 2023.
S&P has ranked major global life insurers by life and accident & health reserves or insurance contract liabilities they have in 2023.
Life and accident & health reserves generally represent a liability to provide for future commitments under outstanding policies. The exact components of reserves may vary based on the specific accounting regime followed by the companies listed, said the report.
LIC, with Life and accident & health reserves of $538 billion in 2023, showing a growth of 8.6 %, is also now the third largest life insurer in the Asia Pacific region.
Published a week back, S&P has Allianz SE, ($807 billion, 4.8%) China Life Insurance Co. Ltd.($685 billion, 3.9%) and Ping An Insurance Group Co.($686 billion,13.3 %) of China Ltd. as the three largest life insurance companies in the world, according to a ranking by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The largest number of companies on the top 50 global life insurers list ranked by life and accident & health reserves or liabilities hailed from Europe, with 21 spots. The UK hosted the most insurers for an individual European country, with seven carriers having operations based there.
There are four companies-China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China, LIC and Japan’s Nippon Life- from the Asia Pacific region which are part S&P’s Top 50 global life insurers.
However, life insurers based in Asia-Pacific occupied 17 spots on the list of top global life insurers, making it the geographic region hosting the second-highest number of companies. Japan and mainland China tied for the top spot in Asia, with five each.
North America took 12 spots on the list with nine companies based in the US, two in Canada and one in Bermuda. On an individual country basis, the US has the largest number of life insurers on the top global 50 list, with nine.
MetLife Inc. is the biggest life insurance company headquartered in the US, followed by Prudential Financial Inc. MetLife ranked seventh on the list of the largest global life insurers and Prudential took the ninth spot.
Technology evolution in global life insuraace industry
According to the report, a major trend that life insurers will contend with in future is the need to integrate technology and artificial intelligence into their business practices, experts say.
Quoting Puneet Kakar, a principal and leader of Monitor Deloitte’s Financial Services Strategy practice, the report said that the use of digital data analytics and AI has been “transforming” the technology and operations of life insurance carriers, leading to a higher rate of growth of about 6% to 8% over the past five years.
Kakar further has said pressure is building on carriers, given customer and agent preferences combined with evolving demographics, to reduce their cost structure and offer a better experience with more products that cater to personal needs.
“They need to use AI and the modern technology to really build their technology and operational platform so they can deliver on those promises,” Kakar said.
“There’s a lot of spend right now from carriers in order to do that transformation and that trend will continue in 2025,” Kakar added.
Also quoting Samantha Chow, global leader for the life insurance, annuities and benefits sector at Capgemini, the report said that life carriers are working through legacy technology constraints and trying to clean up “muddy data” so it can be better utilized.
Chow expected more use of generative AI to ingest documentation and complete standard operating procedures in service, claims and underwriting in 2025.