Singapore's life insurance industry recorded a 3% growth in new business premiums in 2018 compared to the previous year, supported by the continued uptake of annual premium policies. Annual premium policies grew by 6% from the previous year, accounting for S$2.78bn ($2.05bn) out of $4.2bn of total new business premiums for 2018. Single premium plans however, recorded a dip in sales of 3% compared to 2017. The slowdown is attributed to turbulent markets late last year and new regulations...

Liberty International Underwriters (Liberty) is keen to capitalise on its recent successes in the Japanese market by establishing a dedicated Japan desk based in Singapore. The move aims to use Liberty's underwriting solutions, risk engineering and claims services to grow its Japanese portfolio.

The Philippines' Insurance Commission (IC) has recently laid out new guidelines for insurers to follow when outsourcing activities. These guidelines clearly define the areas of business that must be carried out in-house and those that can be outsourced to third parties.

Grab Malaysia (Grab) has expressed concern over both the 'lack of readiness' of certain agencies and the shortage of insurance options available to its drivers as it faces a race against time to comply with new regulations set by the transport ministry.

Trade credit insurer Atradius has released a report on the economic outlook for 2019. The report highlights several promising markets amidst what is a generally cloudy outlook for the year ahead.