The industry booked an insurance service profit of $2.21 billion and after-tax profit of $2.08 billion in the September quarter, up from $2.18 billion and $1.54 billion in the preceding quarter, prudential data shows.

The householders line notched consecutive quarters of insurance service gains, with a profit of $416 million following a $538 million surplus in the April-June period. In the preceding March and December quarters, the line lost $194 million and $681 million respectively.

Industry-wide insurance revenue increased to $19.2 billion from $18.57 billion, and investment income tripled to $1.84 billion from $615 million in the preceding quarter.

Year-earlier comparisons are not available under the new Australian Prudential Regulation Authority report format, which involves a changed accounting framework for insurance contracts.

Under the new framework, insurance service result is a measurement of underwriting performance.

KPMG insurance partner Scott Guse says it is a record result.

“I went back in time a little bit just to check this out. The underwriting result, or the service result as they call it now, is the best September quarter since APRA has been collecting data,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“It’s a push-through of the rate rises ... over the last few years, so they are pretty much fully embedded into the pricing and being earned on a quarterly basis. We’re seeing inflation continue to reduce and we’ve also seen a lack of major weather events in that September quarter.”

He says the December quarter is historically challenging because of the storm and cyclone seasons.

“That being said, the first two months of the quarter have been reasonably benign. There have been events, but nothing major.”

Short-tail property classes – householders, commercial motor, domestic motor, and fire and industrial special risk – made an underwriting profit of $1.02 billion, down from $1.1 billion in the June quarter.