Life insurance hopes 3% rise in customers

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Insurance Council said yesterday that as of the end of last year, 18 million people or 9.3 percent of Indonesia's population had become life insurance policy holders, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year.

"Total premium payments reached Rp 2.06 trillion (US$852 million) as of the end of 1995, up 25 percent from Rp 1.6 trillion as of the end of 1994," Sujono Soepeno, the head of the council's life insurance division said.

Soepeno, who is also an executive of PT AMP Panin Life, said that the figures were obtained from 1995 business reports made by 51 insurance companies in the country which have been registered as council members.

The companies had combined assets of Rp 4.8 trillion as of last December, as compared to Rp 3.9 trillion as of the end of 1994.

Soepeno said that total investment funds in the life insurance industry rose 35 percent to Rp 3.6 trillion as of 1995 over the previous year.

"Of the total investment funds, 58 percent were invested in time deposits, 8.5 percent in real estate, 8.5 percent in securities, 7.5 percent in direct placement, 7.2 percent in policy loans, 5.6 percent in mortgage loans and 4.7 percent in other instruments," he added. (alo)