Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the penetration rate of life insurance remained low at 42 per cent and there is still a large untapped life insurance market in Malaysia. The benefits of insurance are still not understood by the rural community, especially in Sabah and Sarawak. Hence, the insurance penetration in rural areas must be increased.
Insurance companies should also take into account the huge untapped market of the Bumiputera community that can be leveraged to improve the financial inclusion rate.
The Malaysian population was covered with RM1.02 trillion sum insured in various forms of life policies, at an average sum insured of RM34,700 per capita for 2012, a year-on-year increase of 6.7 per cent as at Dec 2012.
General insurance industry registered a growth of 8.2 per cent in gross premiums to reach RM15.180 billion last year, with net premiums growing at a rate of 8.3 per cent to hit RM10.528 billion.
In terms of growth in new business last year, both life and general insurance sectors increased by 2.2 per cent to RM4.3 billion weighted premium and 8.2 per cent to RM15.180 billion in gross premiums, respectively.
Ahmad added that the average annual income of a full-time insurance agent had increased from RM65,000 to RM91,000 and the number of full-time agents had grown in proportion to the total number of agents, from 23 per cent in 2002 to 39 per cent last year.
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