Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), a global life and health reinsurer, has reported fourth-quarter 2023 premium growth of 19.2% over the prior-year quarter as consolidated net premiums hit $4.1 billion.
Net premiums for the quarter include a $500 million contribution from a single premium pension risk transfer transaction in the U.S. Financial Solutions business, explains the firm.
For the full-year 2023, net premiums totalled $15.1 billion, an increase of 15.3% from 2022. Net premiums for the full year include a $1.5 billion contribution from single premium pension risk transfer transactions in the U.S. Financial Solutions business.
Premium growth occurred in the firm’s traditional U.S. and Latin America business segment, rising to $1.9 billion in the quarter and to more than $7 billion for the year.
In Canada, premium growth was relatively flat at $311 million for the quarter and $1.2 billion for the year.
Europe, Middle East and Africa premium growth was also flat at $461 million for Q4’23 and $1.8 billion for the full year. It’s a similar story in Asia Pacific, with slight premium growth to $709 million for the quarter and to $2.8 billion for the year.
During the quarter, RGA deployed capital of $346 million into in-force transactions, and deployed capital of $933 million into in-force transactions for the full year 2023.
The reinsurer’s adjusted operating income for Q4 totalled $316 million compared with $312 million a year earlier, as net income fell slightly from $291 million to $158 million.
For the full-year 2023, net income totalled $902 million compared with $517 million in 2022. Adjusted operating income for the full year totalled $1.334 billion compared with $927 million in the prior year.
Tony Cheng, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “In the quarter, we saw a continuation of the many positive trends that we experienced in the first nine months, and this helped us produce record results for the year. Our Financial Solutions business continued to deliver very strong results across regions and product lines. We continued to see good momentum in organic business activity in the traditional business, and our in-force transactions were especially strong, with $346 million of capital deployed in the quarter. This brought our annual capital deployment into in-force transactions to $933 million, a record for RGA.
“Additionally, we repurchased $50 million of common shares, bringing the full year total to $200 million. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we ended the quarter with excess capital of approximately $1.0 billion. Based on favorable business conditions and RGA’s global leadership position, we are optimistic about the future and expect to continue to deliver attractive financial results over time.”
