The Australian insurance industry has performed well for the year ended March 31, with net premium revenue at $21.5 billion, up 2.2% on the previous 12 months. Of that, insurers wrote 95.3%, or $20.5 billion (up 3.6%).

The remaining $1 billion (4.7%) was written by reinsurers, down 20.3% on the previous 12 months, according to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) Quarterly General Insurance Performance Statistics issued on last week.

Net claims for the industry for the year reached $11.8 billion, down $1.3 billion on the previous year. This figure comprised insurer claims of $11.5 billion (down $1 billion) and reinsurer claims of $300 million (down $300 million).

The net loss ratio for the industry in the year was 55%, down from 62% in the year ended March 31 2006.

APRA says total industry net profit after tax for the year was $5.6 billion, compared with $5.2 billion previously.

The industry underwriting result was a $4 billion surplus, an increase of $1.7 billion on the previous year.

Return on net assets was 22.1%, up from 21.4% for the previous year. Total assets for the insurance industry were $86.6 billion at March 31, an increase of $3.2 billion.