Dai-ichi Life’s underwriting profitability to recover: Fitch

The ratings firm said that it also has ‘strong capitalisation’.

Dai-ichi Life will recover its underwriting profitability as the government begins to ease up on COVID-19 restrictions, Fitch Ratings said.

In 2022, the Japanese insurer saw its domestic underwriting business suffer insured losses caused by ‘deemed hospitalisation’ amidst the rise of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. This saw core profits drop by 12% in H1 FY2023.

However, Fitch said as the regulator changed the rule on ‘deemed hospitalisation’ in 2022, insurance payouts would reduce.

“We also expect 'deemed hospitalisation' to diminish within the next six months, as the government plans to ease pandemic-related restrictions, helping profitability recover to pre-pandemic levels from FY2024,” Fitch said.

Dai-ichi is the second largest life insurer in Japan, with more than 10% share of the domestic market in protection products.