Total premium income of Taiwan's life insurance industry reached NT$3.3trn ($106.8bn) in 2018, according to statistics from the Life Insurance Association (LIA-ROC). The figure represents an increase of 2.7% over the previous year's NT$3.2trn.

First year premiums totalled NT$1.17trn in 2018, an increase of 10.6% compared with 2017. Renewal life premiums dipped by 1.2% last year to NT$2.12trn.

Traditional life insurance business collected NT$2.92trn in premiums last year, marginally lower than the NT$2.93trn posted in 2017. Traditional life insurance products accounted for 88.7% of overall premiums.

Investment-type products saw a premium income of NT$372.04bn, accounting for 11.3% of total premium income. This class of business grew by 34.7% over 2017 in terms of premiums.

To boost sales of life protection products, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has increased the interest rate on reserves, a move which makes premiums relatively cheaper and aims to increase the willingness of policyholders to purchase life protection products.