IBSL confirms Ceylinco Life as country’s top life insurer

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL), Sri Lanka’s insurance sector regulator, has officially confirmed that Ceylinco Life retained its position as the market leader in the country’s long term insurance segment in 2010.

In its recently released Annual Report for the year, the IBSL ranks Ceylinco Life as No. 1 in terms of market share of Gross Written Premium (GWP) among 14 companies in long term insurance business, with premium income of Rs 8.786 billion out of a cumulative total of Rs. 31.151 billion in 2010.

“Ceylinco Insurance PLC has secured its top position in the market in terms of GWP of long term insurance business similar to previous years by achieving a market share of 28.21%,” the IBSL report states.

Commenting, Ceylinco Life Managing Director R. Renganathan said: “An independent and authoritative confirmation of market leadership by the sector’s regulator no less, is important in a highly competitive sector like insurance. For policyholders, this eliminates ambiguity and interpretations of statistics.”The year ending 31 December 2010 was the seventh successive year of market leadership for Ceylinco Life.

The company sold 157,682 new life policies during the year, accounting for nearly a third of the 503,543 new policies sold by all 14 life insurance companies.

Ceylinco Life’s Life Fund grew by a healthy 20.5 per cent to Rs. 31.868 billion in 2010, following a net transfer of Rs. 5.418 billion during the year, while Investments grew by 25.7 per cent to Rs. 29.376 billion. Total assets increased by 20.6 per cent to Rs. 36.956 billion as at 31 December 2010.

A noteworthy feature of the company’s performance in 2010 was the substantial growth of its solvency margin, which stood at 9.1 times more than the minimum stipulated by law by the end of the year. A computation of the excess of admissible assets over statutory liabilities, the Solvency Margin is the best indicator of an insurance company’s ability to meet the obligations arising from its insurance contracts at any time.

Ceylinco Life’s investment portfolio, valued at more than Rs. 29 billion as at 31 December 2010, comprised of government securities (38 per cent); licensed private banks (17 per cent); state banks (22 per cent); real estate (12 per cent); corporate debt (7 per cent) and others (4 per cent). “We conform strictly with the investment guidelines stipulated under the Regulation of the Insurance Industry Act No. 43 of 2000 for investments pertaining to Life Funds,” Renganathan said. “These investments are subject to regular monitoring by the IBSL.”

Independently rated as one of Sri Lanka’s most valuable brands, Ceylinco Insurance was adjudged ‘Peoples Brand of the Year’ in the insurance category in March 2011 for the 5th consecutive time. In 2010, the company received the top award for Social Marketing at the Global Awards for Brand Excellence presented by the World Brand Congress in Mumbai. This was the second consecutive Brand Excellence Award won by Ceylinco Life at this event.