Sales of protection products in Hong Kong and Japan helped lift AXA’s life and health premiums 7% in the first nine months of 2026, even as its large commercial unit, AXA XL, kept giving up business in softening markets.
Group life and health gross written premiums and other revenues rose to €44.8bn, according to AXA’s nine-month activity indicators, published on 29 October. Across the whole group, premiums and other revenues rose 5% to €93bn.
AXA said protection premiums rose 5%, helped in particular by continued success of its protection with general account savings products in Hong Kong and protection with unit-linked products in Japan. General account savings premiums rose 9%, mainly from strong single-premium product sales in Japan, partly offset by lower savings sales in Hong Kong.
AXA reports its Asian operations within a wider Asia, Africa and emerging Europe and Latin America segment, which covers its insurance business in Japan and Hong Kong, Thailand P&C, and Indonesia life and savings, as well as markets including Türkiye and Mexico. That segment’s premiums rose 7% to €16.1bn, with life and health up 12% to €11.1bn and P&C up 8% to €5.0bn. Much of the segment’s P&C growth earlier this year came from higher average premiums in Türkiye.
In P&C, AXA’s group premiums rose 3% to €48.1bn, driven by a 7% increase in personal lines. AXA XL, the group’s commercial and specialty unit, which writes large corporate and specialty risks across Asia through hubs including Singapore and Hong Kong, went the other way. Its insurance premiums fell 1%, with prices down 1%, as it cut casualty volumes in what AXA called disciplined cycle management in a softening market. AXA XL Reinsurance premiums fell 9% to €2.2bn.
AXA said natural catastrophe losses were above its budget, driven by secondary perils such as hail, mainly in France, Switzerland and Italy. Its Solvency II ratio fell to 213% at the end of September from 218% at the end of June. It expects full-year underlying earnings of about €8.6bn.
For life and protection intermediaries, AXA’s results show continued demand for protection products that combine savings features, particularly in Hong Kong and Japan. These are markets where insurers are competing hard for high-net-worth and mass-affluent customers.
For commercial brokers placing large and specialty risks in the region, AXA XL’s stance points to a market where at least one major carrier won’t follow prices down, particularly in casualty. With AXA XL Re also contracting, Asian insurers buying reinsurance at the 1 January renewals may find it more selective about which business it writes, even as overall conditions soften.
