Get the jab, pleads life insurer as it reveals extent of Covid-19 death claims

Momentum Metropolitan’s life insurance businesses paid R10.7bn in death claims during the year, compared to an average R5.6bn a year over the three years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic.

The group has made an additional provision of R2.2bn for an extended period of future Covid-19 claims.

This was revealed when it declared its annual results on Wednesday.

Group CEO Hillie Meyer said normalised headline earnings were down 34% to R1bn for the 12 months to end-June. Operating profit declined by 93% largely due to the impact of Covid-19 claims. 

Meyer cautioned that though the pace of vaccinations has increased over recent months, he believes to curb the negative impact of the pandemic, the pace must be accelerated.

“We have seen vaccinations not only reduce infections, they also protect people from severe symptoms and hospitalisation and improve their chances of survival.

“A faster rollout of the vaccination programme and achieving the stated objective to vaccinate 70% of the population will certainly help to curb the pandemic to manageable proportions.”

The group is supporting the national vaccine rollout by operating five mass vaccination centres, and by the end of August these sites had administered more than 175,000 vaccines, Meyer said.

The group said it has a solid balance sheet and recorded strong new business volumes in the year. It is targeting an improvement in the return on equity from about 15% to 20% by 2024.

“We are navigating through this challenging period with a strong solvency position and with sufficient liquidity to withstand impacts from the continuously evolving environment,” Meyer said.

TimesLIVE