The life industry posted a net profit of $459 million for the September quarter, according to the prudential regulator’s quarterly update.

Investment returns contributed to the performance with a gain of $2.69 billion, while the insurance service result – the new metric for underwriting performance – was $639 million.

Year-earlier comparisons are unavailable, but the September results are an improvement on the June quarter, which produced net profit of $116 million and an insurance service result of $393 million.

Insurance revenue rose to $6.17 billion from $5.85 billion in the June quarter.

By product line, individual disability income made an insurance service profit of $385 million; group disability income made $129 million; individual lump sum recorded an $88 million loss; and group lump sum made $47 million.

See the update here.