IAG New Zealand has reported an insurance profit of AU$467 million for the financial year ended June 30 2026, down from AU$606 million in FY25, as the insurer navigated a softer commercial market and a weaker New Zealand dollar. The result was released this morning alongside parent company Insurance Australia Group's (IAG) full-year FY26 results.
"This result reflects a year of disciplined execution, with the business continuing to focus on delivering simpler, faster and better customer experiences," said Phil Gibson (pictured), CEO of IAG New Zealand.
Gross written premium (GWP) fell 8.0% to AU$3,504 million (FY25: AU$3,807 million), reflecting the impact of a softer commercial insurance market and a weakened New Zealand dollar. In local currency terms, GWP decreased 2.7% to NZ$4,060 million, a smaller decline that points to underlying resilience in the retail book even as commercial lines came under pressure.
For brokers, the more relevant detail sits with NZI, IAG New Zealand's intermediated arm. NZI's commercial and personal lines GWP fell 11% in local currency terms as the group maintained pricing discipline in what it described as a "soft commercial market." Reported insurance profit for the intermediated segment dropped to NZ$170 million, down from NZ$246 million a year earlier.
Despite the softer top line, IAG New Zealand pointed to progress on broker-facing digital infrastructure. Gibson said NZI had "strengthened its proposition with its premium product, NZI Distinction, and made the management of personal lines policies easier for brokers with its new digital platform, NZI Blue." He added that "in a tough commercial market, NZI's local on-the-ground claims expertise and more tailored insurance solutions are proving an important point of difference for our customers."
The group's underlying insurance margin improved to 20.6%, up from 20.1% in FY25, while the reported insurance margin eased to 22.8% from 27.4% – a result the company attributed to natural disaster costs coming in AU$19 million below allowance for the year, a comparatively benign outcome relative to prior years.
On the direct side, IAG New Zealand said 80,000 new customers had chosen its retail brands during the year, aided by premium reductions and a levelling-off in rate increases as inflationary pressure moderated. The group also highlighted the completion of a major data and systems migration onto its new Enterprise Platform, which Gibson said would "accelerate our customer-centred transformation to deliver efficiencies, increase agility, strengthen competitiveness and enhance the company's ability to respond to changing customer needs."
Throughout the year, IAG New Zealand insured NZ$1.07 trillion in assets and continued to protect around one in two New Zealand households, receiving approximately 2.7 million customer calls and more than half a million claims, and paying out NZ$2.2 billion.
The company also pointed to a broader advocacy push on natural hazard risk, publishing research including "A long-term approach to natural hazard risk reduction" and its eighth Wild Weather Tracker, which found New Zealand is now experiencing a storm approximately every eight days on average. "Building a safer and more resilient New Zealand will require coordinated action across government, business and communities, and IAG remains committed to playing our part," Gibson said.
The New Zealand result forms part of IAG's broader FY26 group results, which showed group-wide net profit after tax falling nearly 25% to $1,022 million, with the group's Australian intermediated arm also posting comparatively subdued growth against a stronger direct channel.
