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Information about the International Insurance Survey |
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Availability
| Valid From: .. | 06/30/1988 |
| To: .. | Ongoing |
| Frequency: .. | Quarterly |
Design
Purpose: The insurance survey consists of 4 questionnaires designed to cover international insurance transactions between New Zealand and the rest of the world for the Insurance item of New Zealand's Balance of Payments statement.
Quarterly Questionnaire for New Zealand Underwriters BP/IS/01
The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect information on insurance and reinsurance transactions between New Zealand underwriters and non-resident insured individuals or enterprises.
Quarterly Reinsurance Questionnaire BP/IS/02
The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect information on reinsurance transactions between New Zealand underwriters and non-resident reinsurers.
Quarterly Insurance Brokers/Agents Questionnaire BP/IS/03
The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect information, from New Zealand enterprises that act as an intermediary between New Zealand insured individuals/enterprises and non-resident underwriters, and on insurance transactions between New Zealand insureds and non-resident underwriters.
Quarterly Questionnaire for Enterprises which Insure Overseas BP/IS/04
The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect information from New Zealand enterprises that carry out the following transactions. They insure with a non-resident underwriter directly (not through an intermediary) and/or they place insurance with a non-resident underwriter directly for a subsidiary of their company.
General Information ..Target Population
All enterprises and individuals who have international insurance transactions.
Population covered
The enterprises surveyed are those who have been previously identified as having international insurance transactions. These have normally been identified from IRD data and the Annual Enterprise Survey, General Insurance and Life Insurance questionnaires.
Statistical Unit
The survey is selected at the enterprise level from the Business Frame.
Selection Unit
To be selected for the survey, an enterprise needs to indicate insurance transactions in the Annual Business Frame Update Survey (ABFUS). Media searches are also used to select units.
Collection Unit
Data is collected at the enterprise level.
Under Coverage
No adjustment is made for undercoverage. This is because the survey is a census of all known enterprises engaged in international insurance transactions.
Population and Sample Size
The population for this survey is generally around 150 - 200 enterprises.
Calculation of the Insurance Component
The insurance data is collected from 3 sources:
1. The four Insurance survey questionnaires
2. The freight insurance data
3. The Average Domestic Service Charge Ratio (ADSCR)
A premium paid for general insurance is made up of 2 components. The first, called the service component, is the part of the premium that pays the insurance company for the service it provides and the second, called the transfer component, is that part that the insurance company keeps and then transfers back to the policyholders when a claim is made. The service component is recorded in the current account under goods and services/insurance services, while the second component is recorded in the current account under current transfers.
Life insurance transactions are added to the service component, with the service charge being calculated as premiums minus claims.
In NZ's BOP statistics the service component is measured by multiplying the total amount of general insurance premiums exported or imported by the 5 year average domestic service charge ratio.
In addition, to the service charge commissions earned by insurance agents are also included in insurance services in the current account.
The ADSCR
The 5 year average domestic service charge ratio is calculated from National Accounts data. It is the ratio of the domestic insurance service charge to total domestic premiums where the service charge is calculated as premiums minus claims.
The Treatment of General Insurance
General insurance is collected in the Insurance questionnaires and also includes freight insurance. It includes all non-life premiums and claims.
Freight insurance is treated in much the same way as normal insurance however, due to data limitations, a number of assumptions have had to be made. Freight insurance exports occur when a NZ insurance company insures goods being exported, while freight insurance imports occur when a foreign company is insuring goods that are being imported into NZ. To measure the flows of services very precise information is needed on the premiums received and claims paid by NZ insurance companies in the case of exports from NZ, and foreign insurers in the case of imports is needed. Such precise information is not available nor is it easily obtained. However, customs data does provide information on the total amount of insurance premiums paid on imported goods. In order to deduce a figure for freight insurance imports it is assumed that all of insurance paid on imports is provided by overseas insurers. This is consistent with non-resident transporters providing almost all of the transportation for imported goods. The ratio of insurance to total imports is then used to derive freight insurance exports. The values derived for premiums paid of freight exports and freight imports are then split into their service and transfer components using the domestic service charge ratio. Associated figures on claims are thought to be very small and are assumed to equal zero.
The Treatment of Life Insurance
International transactions in life insurance are considered to be very small. Most likely these transactions happen as a result of immigration and emigration. Collecting information on international flows of life insurance is extremely difficult. For exports, industry sources indicate that the only data that can be obtained are some kind of list of non-residents, but only by addresses contained within systems, and a lot of people overseas are likely to have put down the address of a relative resident in NZ rather than their overseas address. For imports, the only way to obtain this information would be to survey individuals.
Given the likely size of life insurance transactions and the quality of data available, a simplified treatment has been adopted. Life insurance exports are assumed to be negligible and are not surveyed directly. Data relating to life insurance imports are collected separately in the reinsurance and agents and brokers questionnaires, as in these cases the amounts involved are likely to be much larger.
For life insurance imports the service charge is calculated as premiums minus claims.
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
| Variable Name | Description |
| |
| Insurance Premium Receipts BP/IS/01 | Premiums received from non-resident insureds. |
| Insurance Commissions Paid BP/IS/01 | Commissions paid on insurance transactions. |
| Insurance Claims Paid BP/IS/01 | Claims paid to non-resident insureds. |
| Reinsurance Premium Receipts BP/IS/01 | Reinsurance premiums received from non-resident insureds. |
| Reinsurance Commissions Paid BP/IS/01 | Commissions paid on reinsurance transactions. |
| Reinsurance Claims Paid BP/IS/01 | Reinsurance claims paid to non-resident insureds. |
| Non-life Reinsurance Premiums Paid BP/IS/02 | Non-life reinsurance premiums paid to non-resident reinsurers. |
| Non-life Reinsurance Claims Received BP/IS/02 | Non-life reinsurance claims from non-resident underwriters. |
| Life Reinsurance Premiums Paid BP/IS/02 | Life reinsurance premiums paid to non-resident reinsurers. |
| Life Reinsurance Claims Received BP/IS/02 | Life reinsurance claims from non-resident underwriters. |
| Non-life Insurance Premiums Paid BP/IS/03 | Non-life premiums paid to non-resident reinsurers. |
| Non-life Insurance Commissions Income BP/IS/03 | Commissions earned on non-life insurance transactions. |
| Non-life Insurance Claims Received BP/IS/03 | Non-life claims from non-resident underwriters. |
| Life Insurance Premiums Paid BP/IS/03 | Life premiums paid to non-resident reinsurers. |
| Life Insurance Commissions Income BP/IS/03 | Commissions earned on life insurance transactions. |
| Life Insurance Claims Received BP/IS/03 | Life claims from non-resident underwriters. |
| Insurance Premiums Paid BP/IS/04 | Premiums paid to non-resident reinsurers. |
| Insurance Claims Received BP/IS/04 | Claims from non-resident underwriters. |
| Freight Insurance on Exports | Insurance paid on the export of goods. |
| Freight Insurance on Imports | Insurance paid on the import of goods. |
| Average Domestic Service Charge Ratio (ADSCR) | The ADSCR is the ratio of the domestic insurance service charge to total domestic premiums where the service charge is calculated as premiums minus claims. |
Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..Information for the Insurance component is based on quarterly surveys of:
- New Zealand underwriters that reinsure directly with foreign resident re-insurers;
- New Zealand brokers and agents acting as intermediaries between New Zealand insured individuals and enterprises and foreign resident underwriters;
- New Zealand firms that directly place their insurance overseas with a foreign resident underwriter; and
- New Zealand underwriters that accept the risk of foreign resident insured individuals and enterprises.
Marine cargo insurance (i.e. insurance of the goods being carried) is a transportation service as opposed to an insurance service. The insurance services here relate to marine hull insurance (i.e. insurance of the carrier of marine cargo).
The quarterly surveys commenced with the June 1988 quarterly survey and prior to this period estimates were based on the Overseas Exchange Transaction record, collected via the banking system. This was supplemented by the annual data capture of insurance flows between related enterprises.
Revisions
As part of the 1989/90 annual balance of payments release, revisions were made to insurance credits and debits and taken back to the March 1987 quarter to reflect improved claims data.
Changes due to Balance of Payments Manual 5th edition (BPM5)
With the introduction of BPM5 as the official balance of payments methodology, the insurance component of services has undergone a number of changes. These changes were introduced in the June 2000 quarter and calculated back to the June 1996 quarter.
As suggested in the BPM5 in compiling NZ's BOP statistics insurance is broken up into general insurance and life insurance . This is mainly due to the different nature of general insurance and life insurance. The distinguishing features being that with life insurance there is a certainty that a claim will be paid out, whereas with general insurance there is no such certainty. Also, with life insurance there is often a substantial lag between the payment of life insurance premiums and the payment of claims, whereas with general insurance the lags are often much smaller.
These changes were introduced into the four insurance questionnaires in the June 2000 quarter, the BP/IS/01, BP/IS/02 and BP/IS/03 questionnaires had extra questions added so respondents were able to differentiate between life and non-life transactions.
Insurance is now published as two components. The first, called the service component, is the part of the premium that pays the insurance company for the service it provides and the second, called the transfer component, is that part that the insurance company keeps and then transfers back to the policyholders when a claim is made. The service component is recorded in the current account under goods and services/insurance services, while the second component is recorded in the current account under current transfers.
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..Used for the insurance item of Balance of Payments
Related Data Sources ..Annual Enterprise Survey, Insurance industry
Sampling Errors ..
Non-sampling errors
Caveats on Release ..Can not release country detail but can release question aggregates for each questionnaire
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Classification(s) used
Glossary of Terms
| Term | Description |
| |
| Underwriter | An individual, enterprise, or insuring syndicate that accepts the risk of another. |
| Insurance | Cover against an event which may happen e.g. fire or the timing of an event which must happen. (e.g. death). Reinsurance is not included. |
| Insurance Broker/Agent | An individual or enterprise, that acts as an intermediary between the insured and the insurer. |
| Marine Cargo | Exports and imports of tangible goods by sea, air, or land. |
| Marine Hull Insurance | The insurance of a carrier of marine cargo and the insurance of other vessels or aircraft |
| Insurance Refund | Money returned to the insured in payment of the unexpired part of a terminated insurance policy |
| Reinsurance | The insurance of part, or all, of the risk of an underwriter |
| Insured | An individual or enterprise that an insurance policy is issued to |
| ADSCR | Average Domestic Service Charge Ratio (ADSCR) is the ratio of the domestic insurance service charge to total domestic premiums where the service charge is calculated as premiums minus claims. |
Contact Details
| Customer Service E-mail Contact: | info@stats.govt.nz |
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| Survey Enquiries E-mail Contact: | wido.van.lijf@stats.govt.nz |
Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.