In this year's General Insurance Industry Review report we outline the key events, trends and factors that influenced the performance of the general insurance industry throughout 2021.

The insurance sector’s profits for the year ended 31 December 2021 were up 281 percent from 2020, to $3,486 million. The increase in Insurance Profit was largely driven by an increase in GWP, without a corresponding increase in claims costs.

Investment performance was significantly lower than recent years and as a result, 2021 Insurance Profit remained well below the insurance profits achieved in 2017 through to 2019.

2021 results at a glance



2021 2020 2019 2018

Gross written premium $m 🡹

53,824 48,624 46,271 44,111

Net earned premium $m 🡹

35,995 33,703 32,967 31,217

Underwriting result $m 🡹

3,567 (185) 2,211 3,443

Insurance profit $m 🡹

3,486 915 4,070 4,609

Investment income $m 🡻

510 1,435 2,983 1,912

Loss ratio 🡹

66% 75% 69% 65%

Expense ratio 🡹

24% 25% 25% 24%

Combined ratio 🡹

90% 101% 93% 89%

Insurance margin 🡹

9.7% 2.7% 12.3% 14.8%

Capital ratio 🡹

1.71 1.68 1.67 1.74

Source: APRA Annual General Insurance Performance Statistics Dec 2021 (Direct Insurers only) and KPMG analysis



1. Regulatory and compliance transformation

2. Simplification and cost optimisation

3. Changing customer expectations

4. Pricing and affordability

5. Digital, data, innovation and cyber security

6. Competition for talent

7. Mergers and acquisitions / Integration

8. IFRS 17

9. Climate change

10. ESG



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View our interactive dashboard

KPMG's General Insurance Insights Dashboard contains a range of interactive charts and graphs presenting the key industry metrics for the past 5 years. The interactive dashboard enables the data to be filtered to view the metrics for a particular year or insurer. It also enables comparison of metrics for an individual insurer to others in the market.



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