The general insurance industry sank into an after-tax net loss of $997 million in the March quarter, as last summer’s horror bushfires and fallout from the virus pandemic combined to devastate earnings, latest figures from the prudential regulator show.

In the December quarter, the industry recorded a $220 million net profit, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) says in a regular update based on filings from 96 insurers.

Claims losses from the bushfires and storm events led to underwriting losses of $991 million in the three months to March, a swing away from the $587 million underwriting profit the previous quarter.

On the investment side, the industry lost $81 million, as worries over the economic fallout from the pandemic affected the global financial markets, impacting returns from equities and fixed interest instruments. In the December quarter, the industry made $1 million in investment income.

Gross earned premium increased 2.2% to $13.1 billion from the December quarter, and on a net earned basis, it was unchanged at $9.3 billion. But gross incurred claims grew at a faster rate of 46.1% to $15.3 billion while the gross loss ratio worsened 33 percentage points to 110%.

For the year to March, the industry’s after-tax net profit shrank by 56.7% to $1.5 billion from a year earlier. Underwriting profit declined 47% to $1.5 billion, reflecting the impact of the bushfires and storm events in late December and early in the year.

Gross incurred claims increased 14.8% to $42.3 billion, the result of a large strengthening in long-tail claims reserves, APRA said. Gross earned premium grew at a slower 6.1% to $51 billion.

In a separate report, APRA provided individual insurers’ financial performance for the March quarter. Following are the results of key primary insurers and reinsurers (in alphabetical order):

• AIG Australia had $251 million in gross earned premium, $209 million in gross incurred claims and made an $8 million net loss
• Allianz Australia recorded $1.27 billion in gross earned premium, $1.47 billion in gross incurred claims and made a $19 million net loss
• Hollard Insurance Company logged $329 million in gross earned premium, $296 million in gross incurred claims and earned a $1 million net profit
• IAG had $2.1 billion in gross earned premium, nearly $3 billion in gross incurred claims and chalked up a $400 million net loss
• Munich Re had $365 million in gross earned premium, $376 million in gross incurred claims and made a $36 million net loss
• QBE Insurance Australia had $1.3 billion in gross earned premium, nearly $1.2 billion in gross incurred claims and made a $151 million net loss
• Suncorp-owned AAI had $2.05 billion in gross earned premium, $2.59 billion in gross incurred claims and made a $151 million net loss.