Taiwan insurers cough up over $1b in COVID-19 claims

Some insurers took to selling properties to increase cash reserves.

The top 12 insurers in Taiwan had to pay over $1b in COVID-19 claims in 2022, with some insurers selling properties and applying for short-term loans just to increase their cash reserves, a report by the Central News Agency revealed.

Consumers’ Foundation Secretary-General Hsu Tse-yu said that low premiums of a few hundred dollars led to sales of millions of COVID-19-related policies. However, a surge in cases that began in April has exposed that insurance companies had made poor risk assessments for the sustainability of the policies.

ALSO READ: Seven Taiwan insurers fails to collect $100m interest on Russian bond

In its monthly statistics, the Financial Supervisory Commission revealed that Taiwan’s general insurance industry reported a year-on-year (YoY) pre-tax profit loss of a whopping 484.4% to $1.57 YoY in June. This has been the third month that the industry suffered YoY loss.

Meanwhile, some insurers like Cathay Century Insurance Co and  CTBC Insurance Co have started to inject more capital to avoid going in the red.