The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's latest life insurance statistics show premiums dropped by almost 9% to $37.5 billion for the quarter ending June. Life office premiums also dropped, and were down more than 11%, or $9.2 billion.

Total assets for the industry stood at $181.5 billion at June 30, which was up almost 3% on the previous quarter. More than 86% of the total assets were sourced from super funds.

Investment-linked statutory fund assets increased 4.4% to $116.3 billion, representing 64% of the total assets in life office statutory funds. Non-investment linked statutory fund assets remained steady at $65.3 billion at the end of June 2003.

Policy payments made by offices were just over $10 billion for the period, an increase of more than 26% on the March 2003 quarter. Policy payments for the year to June showed a decrease of 0.2% to $38.1 billion.