Buying insurance on the internet is growing rapidly, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has found in its latest statistical review of members.

About 31% of personal business and 43% of private vehicle cover is now sold direct by telephone or via the internet.

The review says insurers don’t know how much broker business is written through comparison websites, but it’s estimated that 51% of all private car new business was purchased via the internet last year, “and this is increasing in 2011”. 

It says 10% of household insurance was purchased through the internet and the figure could be 20% this year.

The ABI says 56% of personal lines insurance and 80% of commercial business is sold through brokers.

UK insurers received worldwide net premiums of £46.4 billion ($74.7 billion) last year and paid out £30.8 billion ($49.6 billion) in claims.

The figure comprises written premium less reinsurance, and the ABI says once expenses, commissions and adjustments to reserves are taken into account, the industry made a small loss of £1.2 billion ($1.93 billion) for the year.

However, the return on investments from its membership of over 300 companies was £3.5 billion ($5.6 billion), or 7.5 % of premium income.

The industry employs 290,000 people and accounts for more than a quarter of all financial services jobs.

It manages investments worth £1.7 trillion ($2.7 trillion) and 13% of investments in the London stock market. About 28% of its net premium income comes from overseas business.

The ABI estimates that 19.6 million UK households have contents insurance and 16.5 million have buildings insurance. Over 2 million claims on these were made last year.

Insurers cover 24.3 million private vehicles and 4.4 million commercial vehicles, with 3.7 million claims for private vehicles reported last year.

“Motor insurance is currently the most challenging product for insurers, with increasing bodily injury claims, legal costs, uninsured driving and fraud,” the review says.