Silver lining for some: Virus shutdown boosts non-life insurers

HONG KONG | BEIJING: Chinese non-life insurers are discovering a silver lining to the cloud spreading over China’s economic performance from the coronavirus outbreak - a sharp drop in car accident claims. “There’s certainly a decline in auto insurance claims and the settlement ratio due to less traffic and activity amid the virus outbreak,” said a senior Beijing-based executive at China Pacific Insurance Group.

A senior PICC executive based in Ningbo, the second worst-hit by the virus outbreak, said he expected auto insurance claims and settlements to drop in the first quarter in his city.

Such is the expected drop in motor accident claims, several brokers have raised target share prices for the likes of PICC and ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance. Motor insurance accounts for about three quarters of Chinese non-life insurers’ business while health insurance — where virusrelated claims would fall under — accounts for less than 5%, according to Swiss Re.