The Swiss-headquartered insurance giant, with its international life products domiciled in the Isle of Man, reported an 18% Q3 rise in new business sales on a constant currency basis in contrast to a poor showing on the general insurance side.
Zurich Global Life also revealed the same 18% growth over the period for its business operating profit.
These results come two months after Zurich Life Insurance (Singapore) agreed to hand over all of its approximately 160 appointed financial advisers in the city state to Nexus Financial Services, part of the Middle East-based Nexus Group, in response to changes in the regulatory landscape.
However, in the US dollar quoted figures in the main results on an annual premium equivalent basis (APE) where sales are based on the value of regular premiums, plus 10% of any new single premiums, there was a 2% fall from $1,153m to $1,127m.
Within the APE totals, the EMEA region grew by 5% on this currency basis over the period from $778m to $817m, while Latin America fell 22.3%, from $278m to $216m.
But in local currency terms, the APE for the Global Life division showed a 16% increase “driven by good performance is most regions”, said George Quinn, chief financial officer.
This growth, he said, was primarily driven by corporate life and pensions volumes in Germany and Ireland and individual savings growth in Banco Sabadell.
“Asia Pacific saw another quarter of strong sales of protection business in Japan, with local currency volumes increasing 60% over the prior year period for the region.”
Latin America volumes in local currency increased by 11%, he added.
Net inflows for the Global Life division as a whole dropped by 4% from $267bn to $255bn in assets under management, though within these headline figures both unit linked and third party investments rose by 0.8% (to $113bn) and 3.3% ($37bn) respectively.
The inflow gains in these two areas were countered by a fall in group investments, from $116bn to $114bn.
Zurich’s group chief executive Martin Senn said: “While both Life and Farmers are on track with prior quarters and our expectations, business operating profit for Q3 of around $250m has been impacted by the general insurance operating loss of $183m.”
The general insurance losses were particularly impacted by the $275m in claims relating to the Tianjin port explosions.
