Suncorp New Zealand’s life business, which includes Asteron Life and AA Life, reported a profit after tax of $44 million, up 12.8 percent on the prior corresponding period.
Its FY19 results also noted in-force premium grew by 3.9 percent, supported by policy retention and premium price growth.
CEO, Paul Smeaton, says Asteron Life had also submitted its formal response to the New Zealand regulators’ review of life insurer conduct and culture in New Zealand, which included a detailed action plan to address specific regulator feedback with a focus on delivering good customer outcomes.
“This includes addressing regulator expectations regarding staff incentives by removing all internal sales-based incentives from 1 July 2019,” Smeaton said.
Suncorp New Zealand overall made a net profit after tax of $261 million for the full year ended 30 June 2019, up 76 percent on the prior corresponding period (FY18).
Smeaton said the strong result was partly driven by an unusually low claims year for natural hazard events and that he expects New Zealand’s strong performance to continue into FY20.
He added Suncorp New Zealand will continue to focus on building a resilient business to meet a greater number of customer needs, with increased investment in:
- Digitising the business
- Improved customer communications
- Improved claims experience