The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its half-yearly general insurance bulletin, which includes statistics from 133 Australian insurers for their financial years ending between January and December 2005.

The bulletin shows insurers reporting gross premium revenue of $28.4 billion for the period, with underwriting profits of $2.9 billion – down 7.9% on the previous 12 months and 5.7% lower than the 12 months to December 31 2003.

APRA says gross premium revenue for professional indemnity insurance fell 2.1% from the previous year to $1.3 billion. Premium earnings from public and product liability and CTP also fell.

In financial reports for periods ending last year, insurers reported 98% of gross premium revenue being generated in Australia.

Private insurers’ total assets in Australia are $78.8 billion, or 97% of total assets.

Insurers in NSW and the ACT accounted for 43.5% of total gross premium revenue in Australia, followed by Victoria (20.4%) and Queensland (17.5%).

Gross incurred claims reported in financial years ending last year were $18.4 billion, with $17.5 billion (95%) made up of claims on direct insurers.

Insurers reported total assets of $81.5 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion (3.6%) on the previous year. Industry assets were offset by total liabilities of $56.6 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion (3.5%) on the previous year.