Financial and operating highlights:
- All of Zurich’s Property and Casualty units across Asia Pacific achieved strong year-on-year growth, resulting in total GWP of US$3,465m, up from 18% from 2021 on a like-for-like basis. This growth, underpinned by a strong focus on underwriting excellence, has resulted in an improved accident year combined ratio (ex. CAT) of 91.6% (94.0% in FY 2021), and a total Property & Casualty BOP of US$300 million – a 27% increase (reported basis) compared to the prior year.
- The Life full-year BOP was up 3% (like-for-like) compared to the prior year and at US$331m represents the highest Life earnings result for Zurich Asia Pacific. Life APE also grew by 14% from 2021, on a like-for-like basis, coming in at US$206 million for 2022.
- 2.4ppts improvement taking P&C accident year combined ratio (ex. CAT) to 91.6%.
- US$2 billion in customer claims paid out and 760,000 new claims received in 2022.
- Highest ever customer satisfactions levels recorded driven by insight-led improvements and ongoing digital transformation.
Tulsi Naidu, CEO of Zurich Asia Pacific said: “I am very pleased with the results we announced today and the progress we are making in the region. 2022 was not an easy year with COVID-19 related pressures still in play in a number of markets, the strength of the dollar, and significant weather events in Australia. Despite this, our business across the region has delivered strong premium growth and solid earnings coupled with our strongest ever customer and employee engagement scores. These results, and the investments we are making in our digital and distribution capabilities across the region, position us very strongly as we look forward.”
Strong financial performance across segments
All of Zurich’s Property and Casualty units across Asia Pacific achieved strong year-on-year growth, resulting in total GWP of US$3,465m, up 18% from 2021 on a like-for-like basis. This growth, underpinned by a strong focus on underwriting excellence, has resulted in an improved accident year combined ratio (ex. CAT) of 91.6% (94.0% in FY 2021), and a total Property & Casualty BOP of US$300 million – a 27% increase (reported basis) compared to the prior year.
On a local currency basis, the Life full-year BOP was up 3% (like-for-like) compared to the prior year and at US$331m represents the highest Life earnings result for Zurich Asia Pacific. Life APE also grew by 14% from 2021, on a like-for-like basis, coming in at US$206 million for 2022. While fluctuations in foreign exchange rates impacted the actual FX figures, the Life businesses across the region have shown strong progression and are well-positioned having launched several new competitive and flexible propositions, to grow the range of protection propositions and meet the needs of customers in this post-pandemic era.
Customer focus delivering results
Throughout 2022, Zurich continued to make significant progress on its customer-focused strategy, further embedding the use of digital, data insights and technology to streamline customer interactions, enable more personalized and digital-first services, and improve the overall customer experience. These improvements position Zurich in Asia Pacific as an insurer of choice, as reflected in the business achieving its highest customer satisfaction levels. These customer experience improvements, together with strong demand through affinity and bancassurance partnerships have delivered a 445,900 increase in Zurich Asia Pacific’s customer base in 2022.
Supporting net-zero goals and communities
Zurich took on a range of initiatives to progress its environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy in APAC in 2022. In Malaysia and Japan, Zurich launched forest conservation collaborations to accelerate reforestation efforts that will have a meaningful impact on climate change mitigation and help build resilience for the local communities. For customers in the region, Zurich introduced several market-first sustainable insurance propositions, including a first-of-its-kind carbon offsetting motor product in Japan, a parametric protection for coffee farmers in Indonesia, and a Zurich Global Green Fund in Malaysia focused on impact investing. Broad-based action has also been taken across the region to reduce operational CO2 emissions by 86% since 2019 and cut paper use by 26% over the last year.
Together with the Z Zurich Foundation, Zurich has been stepping up efforts in the region to foster meaningful impact in the most vulnerable communities across the region. As well as climate change mitigation, building community resilience has been a focus for Zurich in Asia Pacific. To complement successful community grants in Australia and New Zealand, multi-year education grants were launched in Indonesia and India, and further grants addressing the mental wellbeing of young people or climate change adaptation were approved for Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia, starting in 2023. Employee volunteering in the community reached pre-pandemic levels or exceeded them.
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Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a leading multi-line insurer serving people and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. Founded 150 years ago, Zurich is transforming insurance. In addition to providing insurance protection, Zurich is increasingly offering prevention services such as those that promote wellbeing and enhance climate resilience.
Reflecting its purpose to ‘create a brighter future together’, Zurich aspires to be one of the most responsible and impactful businesses in the world. It is targeting net-zero emissions by 2050 and has the highest-possible ESG rating from MSCI. In 2020, Zurich launched the Zurich Forest project to support reforestation and biodiversity restoration in Brazil.
The Group has about 60,000 employees and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN), is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and has a level I American Depositary Receipt (ZURVY) program, which is traded over-the-counter on OTCQX. Further information is available at www.zurich.com.
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