Taipei, July 21, 2008 (CENS)--Thanks to the slump in capital market worldwide, Taiwan saw sharp decline in sales of investment-linked life insurance policies in June, according to statistics compiled by the Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China (LIA-ROC).

The LIA-ROC`s tallies showed premium revenues for first-year investment-linked insurance policies totaled NT$22.29 billion (US$735.64 million at US$1:NT$30.3) in June, accounting for only 32.9% of the industry`s overall premium revenues and representing a sharp decline from 50% up to 70% in the preceding several months.

Taiwan`s largest life insurer-Cathay Life Insurance Co. saw premium revenues for investment-linked policies decline to only NT$970 million (US$32.01 million) from the preceding month`s NT$12 billion (US$396.03 million). An industry insider said the industry would see more sluggish sales of investment-linked life insurance policies in the second half of this year.

The sharp decline in sales of investment-linked life insurance policies can be attributed to the slump in global stock market as well as the more stringent regulations concerning the sales of the financial commodity imposed by the Cabinet-level Financial Supervisory Commission.

The LIA-ROC`s tallies showed sales of investment-linked policies encountered a 49% year-on-year in June. According to an analysis made by the association, domestic consumers have switched to buy such conventional financial commodities as interest-variable annuity, interest-variable life insurance products and short-term pension funds.

Despite the sharp decline in sales of investment-linked life insurance policies, Cathay scored NT$11.3 billion (UYS$372.93 million) in premium revenues for first-year life insurance policies in June, standing firm as the island`s largest life insurer.

The second-largest life insurer in June went to Shin Kong Life Insurance Co. which scored NT$10.3 billion (US$339.93 million) in premium revenues for first-year life insurance policies in June. The company registered NT$6.7 billion (US$221.12 million) in premium revenues for first-year investment-linked life insurance policies in June, ranking first for the sales of the product.



(by Ben Shen)