Insurance intermediaries placed $13.4 billion of premium in the final half of last year, new data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) shows.

In the preceding six months to June, the intermediary channel invoiced about $11.5 billion.

In the December half, about $10.9 billion or 81% of the business was placed with APRA-authorised general insurers, $1.7 billion with Lloyd’s underwriters and $900 million with unauthorised foreign insurers (UFIs).

The UK and Singapore dominated the UFI space, with $336 million and $248 million respectively of business conducted during the period.

Fire and industrial special risks (ISR) accounted for $519 million or 61% of the premium placed with UFIs.

The high-value-insured exemption was used to place $619 million of business with UFIs, atypical exemption $41 million, foreign exemption $28 million and custom exemption $168 million.

New or renewed policies combined totalled 4176, down from 4355 a year earlier, while the average premium across all exemption types increased to $200,800 from $161,000.

There were 1662 licensed general insurance intermediaries during the period.