Australian insurance intermediaries invoiced $9.7 billion in premium during the six months to December 31, according to the latest statistics from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

This was up 10.1% from $8.81 billion in the six months to June, but down slightly from $9.76 billion in the corresponding period of 2015.

Of the total, $8.09 billion was placed with APRA-authorised general insurers, $1.02 billion with Lloyd’s underwriters and $588 million with unauthorised foreign insurers (UFIs).

The UFI figure was down from $746 million in the corresponding period of 2015, and the UK and Singapore accounted for 77% of the premium placed. About $333 million (57% of the total) was placed in the fire and industrial special risk class.

The high-value-insured exemption was used to place 76% of UFI business, custom exemption 19%, atypical exemption 4% and foreign exemption 1%.

The number of policies placed with UFIs during the period fell to 2966 from 4041 in the corresponding period of 2015, driven by a decline in policies using the custom exemption, which dropped to 420 from 1644.

The average premium placed across all exemption types increased to $191,700 from $184,000.

At December 31 there were 1645 intermediaries licensed to conduct general insurance business, and 814 of these placed business with underwriters during the period.