MUSCAT: The total assets of licensed insurance companies operating in the Sultanate of Oman rose 7.5 per cent to reach a value of RO 1.197 billion at the end of 2021, up from RO 1.114 billion in 2020, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced here on Wednesday.
Of this total, the share of general insurance was RO 767.64 million (RO 787.54m in 2020), life insurance RO 219.97 million (RO 326.33m for life insurance/family Takaful in 2020) and health insurance RO 209.95 million. The assets of national insurance companies accounted for a 72.8 per cent share at RO 872.48 million, while foreign insurance companies accounted for 27.2 per cent of the total assets, with an estimated value of about RO 325.07 million.
The audited financial statements of the insurance sector for the year 2021 show that the capital of insurance companies was RO 274.66 million in 2021 compared to RO 274.73 million in 2020, a decrease of 0.03 per cent, as the capital of national companies was RO 125.36 million in 2021 compared to RO 125.36 million in 2020, unchanged. The capital of foreign insurance companies was RO 149.31 million in 2021 compared RO to 149.38 million in 2020 a decrease of 0.05 per cent.
The total net profits of insurance companies were RO 25.760 million in 2021 compared to RO 48.539 million in 2020, a decrease of 47 per cent. The profits of foreign insurance companies were about RO 8.073 million in 2021 compared to RO 14.938 million in 2020, a decrease of 46 per cent.
Gross direct written premiums: Gross direct premiums of insurance companies operating in the Sultanate increased by 3 per cent in 2021 to reach RO 479.857 million compared to about RO 465.895 million in 2020, whereas gross direct premiums of general insurance increased by 0.7 per cent to RO 258.670 million in the year 2021 compared to RO 256.951 million in 2020. This was also accompanied by an increase in the gross direct premiums of life insurance/family Takaful by 6.6 per cent to RO 57.321 million in the year 2021 compared to RO 53.752 million 2020. Gross direct premiums for health insurance increased by 5.6 per cent to RO 163.866 million in the year 2021 compared to RO 155.193 million in 2020.
Total paid indemnities: Compensation paid by insurance companies in the year 2021 increased by 0.1 per cent compared to the year 2020. Total compensations paid by insurance companies were RO 289.834 million in the year 2021 compared to RO 289.601 million in 2020.
The audited financial statements indicate a decrease in the total compensations paid for general insurance by 8.4 per cent to RO 125.522 million in 2021 compared to 136.975 million in 2020. Compensations paid to life insurance/family Takaful recorded an increase at 38.6 per cent in the year 2021 compared to the previous year. As for the compensations paid for health insurance, they recorded a decrease of 0.5 per cent compared to the year 2020, to RO 120.123 million.
Issued policies: The number of policies issued by insurance companies for general, life insurance / family Takaful and health Insurance in the financial year 2021 increased by 8.6 per cent to RO 1.782 million policies, including 1.569 million policies for general insurance, 189,636 policies for life insurance/ family Takaful and 22,939 policies for health insurance compared to the total number of policies issued in the year 2020, which were 1.640 million policies, including 1.496 million policies for general insurance, 131,676 policies for life insurance / family Takaful and 12,234 policies for health insurance.
Retention ratio: Retention ratio of insurance companies in the year 2021 was about 55.5 per cent a decrease from 56.5 per cent compared to 2020. The audited financial statements for the year 2021 indicate that the retention ratio of national insurance companies was 55.4 per cent in the year 2021 compared to 55.2 per cent in 2020, and the retention ratio of foreign companies decreased from 62.8 per cent in the year 2020 to 55.9 per cent in 2021. Motor insurance (comprehensive and third party) constituted the highest ratio compared to other insurances for national companies at 89.6 per cent and 91.5 per cent, respectively, the same was for foreign companies, where motor insurance (comprehensive and third party) constituted the highest ratio at 95.7 per cent and 95.1 per cent respectively.
Takaful activity: Gross direct premiums for Takaful companies operating in the Sultanate of Oman increased by 9.1 per cent to RO 70.779 million in the year 2021 compared to RO 64.848 million in 2020, which represents approximately 15 per cent of the gross direct premiums of insurance companies, whereas it is noted that the gross direct premiums of Takaful companies for general insurance have increased to RO 44.160 million in 2021 compared to RO 41.419 million in 2020. Takaful represented 17 per cent of the total general insurance of all the sectors’ companies. Gross direct premiums of family Takaful increased by 10.8 per cent to RO 13.471 million in the year 2021 compared to RO 12.158 million in 2020. Family Takaful constituted 24 per cent of the total life/ family insurance of all the companies in the sector. Gross direct premiums of Takaful companies for health activity increased by 16.7 per cent to RO 13.148 million in 2021 compared to RO 11.271 million in 2020.
Health Takaful represented 8 per cent of the total health insurance of all the companies in the sector.
The audited financial statements for the year 2021 indicate that the total compensations paid for Takaful activity increased by 13.7 per cent to RO 38.392 million in the year compared to RO 33.777 million in 2020, which constitutes 13 per cent of the total compensations paid by insurance companies. Total compensations paid to the Takaful activities for general insurance increased by 1.4 per cent to RO 19.886 million in 2021 compared to RO19.609 million in 2020.
Total compensations paid to family Takaful activity increased by 77.7 per cent to RO 9.900 million in 2021 compared to RO 5.572 million in 2020. A very slight increase in the total compensations paid to health Takaful activity was recorded at 0.1 per cent to RO 8.606 million in 2021 compared to RO 8.595 million in 2020.
Takaful policies in 2021 were 218,611 policies, including 195,361 policies for the general Takaful, 21,916 policies for the family Takaful activity and 1,334 policies for the health Takaful activity.