Beleaguered US composite insurer The Hartford Financial Services
Group will on 1 June suspend writing all new business in Japan, its
largest foreign market.
Termination of sales removes a major competitor in Japan’s
variable annuity (VA) market in which The Hartford has played a key
pioneering role and been the leading player for almost a
decade.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The Hartford reported that on 31 March 2009 its Japanese unit
Hartford Life Insurance KK had more than 500,000 policies in force
and $30.9 billion of assets under management. Total assets were
down from $34.5 billion at the end of 2008 and a peak of $39
billion at the end of the first quarter of the same year.
In addition to Japan, The Hartford has also announced that as from
8 May it suspended the writing of new business in the UK, a market
it entered in 2005 with the objective of securing a leading
position in the still modest but highly promising VA segment.
The Hartford has also scrapped plans to enter Germany, another
market where the VA segment remains significantly undeveloped. The
insurer was due to begin selling VAs in Germany in the first
quarter of 2009. Together with the UK Germany was viewed by The
Hartford as a key element in its global expansion strategy.
News that The Hartford is to terminate sales in Japan and the UK
and discontinue its German launch coincided with release of its
first quarter 2009 results which reflected a net loss of $1.21
billion compared with a loss of $806 million in the fourth quarter
of 2008 and a net profit of $145 million in the first quarter of
2008.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData
