LIA data for 1H2025 shows bank and tied representatives combined account for 63.3% of new business weighted premiums, reinforcing incumbent control.

The Life Insurance Association Singapore's (LIA) 1H2025 industry data reveals that tied representatives and bank representatives together generate 63.3% of new business weighted premiums, confirming the enduring dominance of these two channels and the structural advantage for incumbent top-five players. This concentration leaves a narrow sliver of the market—just 1.4% of weighted premiums—for the online direct channel, underscoring how deeply entrenched traditional distribution remains in Singapore's life insurance sector.

Distribution Channel Dominance: Tied and Bank Representatives

According to LIA's 1H2025 industry results released on 13 August 2025, bank representatives captured the largest single share of new business weighted premiums at 35.5%, followed by financial adviser representatives at 33.3% and tied representatives at 27.8%. Together, tied representatives and bank representatives—the two channels most closely associated with incumbent insurers' proprietary distribution networks—commanded 63.3% of weighted premiums. By number of new policies, tied representatives accounted for 37.0% and FA representatives 38.2%, while bank representatives wrote only 11.0% of policies—reflecting the higher average premium sizes typical of bancassurance sales. The online direct channel, despite growing consumer familiarity with digital interfaces, represented just 1.4% of weighted premiums and 11.5% of new policies.

Share of Weighted Premiums (%) (%)Source: Orionmano Industries

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  "type": "pie",
  "title": "Share of New Policies by Distribution Channel, 1H2025",
  "subtitle": "Financial adviser representatives write the most policies, but tied agents also hold a large share.",
  "y_unit": "%",
  "series": [
    {
      "name": "FA Representatives",
      "data": [
        {
          "label": "FA Representatives",
          "value": 38.2
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Tied Representatives",
      "data": [
        {
          "label": "Tied Representatives",
          "value": 37.0
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Online Direct",
      "data": [
        {
          "label": "Online Direct",
          "value": 11.5
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Bank Representatives",
      "data": [
        {
          "label": "Bank Representatives",
          "value": 11.0
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Others",
      "data": [
        {
          "label": "Others",
          "value": 2.3
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "source": "Life Insurance Association Singapore, 1H2025 Industry Results, 13 Aug 2025."
}

Market Concentration Among Top Five Insurers

The top five life insurers in Singapore—AIA, Prudential, Great Eastern, NTUC Income (Income Insurance Limited), and Manulife—are all confirmed as LIA member companies and consistently cited in market intelligence as the dominant tier. Mordor Intelligence's 2025 Singapore life and non-life insurance market report identifies AIA, Great Eastern, Prudential, and NTUC Income as the top tier, characterising them as "leveraging multi-channel distribution, deep capital bases, and strong claims reputations to maintain leadership." These insurers operate exclusive bancassurance agreements with major banks: AIA's tie-up with Citibank is a prominent example, as is Great Eastern's long-standing relationship with OCBC. Such partnerships give incumbents preferential access to banks' customer bases, creating a distribution moat that newer entrants cannot easily replicate. LIA data shows that insurers holding "Normal" licences—a category encompassing the top five and other established carriers—contributed 99% of new sales in 1H2025, while Defined Market Segments (DMS) license holders accounted for just 1%.

Implications for New Entrants: Impenetrable Distribution

The dominance of tied and bank channels creates structural barriers for new competitors. Exclusive bancassurance partnerships with Singapore's major retail banks are limited in number and fiercely guarded, as Dr Graham Spriggs noted in a recent industry analysis: "Bancassurance remains a dominant distribution channel... insurers benefit from access to established client bases and trusted advisory networks." A new entrant without an existing bank relationship would need years of negotiation and significant scale to secure comparable access. Tied agency forces also take substantial time and capital to build. As of 30 June 2025, LIA reported that 12,197 FA representatives held exclusive contracts with companies operating tied-agency forces—a network that incumbent insurers have spent decades recruiting, training, and compensating. New market participants cannot rapidly replicate this human infrastructure. The LIA data confirms that DMS license holders—typically newer or smaller players targeting niche segments—captured only 1% of new sales, underscoring the near-total exclusion from mainstream distribution.

Future Outlook: Digital Growth and Incumbent Resilience

The online direct channel is the fastest-growing distribution segment, with Mordor Intelligence reporting a 16.98% CAGR for direct online and insurtech platforms in Singapore's insurance market. However, its 1.4% share of weighted premiums in 1H2025 illustrates the extreme distance between growth rate and market impact. At current trajectory, it will take years—possibly more than a decade—before the online channel meaningfully challenges the combined 63.3% share of tied and bank representatives. Furthermore, incumbents are not standing still. AIA's digital enhancements within its Citibank bancassurance partnership demonstrate how traditional carriers can adopt technology to defend their distribution advantage, offering instant quotes and e-KYC alongside face-to-face advice. LIA data also underscores the continued consumer preference for human advice on complex products: tied agents alone held 37.45% of premiums in 2025, according to Mordor Intelligence, and the LIA president's forward-looking statement projects that FA representatives will remain central as consumers "optimise their portfolio and plan for their long-term protection needs." For new entrants, the path to meaningful market share runs through either buying a block of existing distribution—an expensive acquisition strategy—or building a digital proposition that serves underserved segments. Neither route offers rapid disruption of the incumbent-dominated status quo. Distribution disruption in Singapore's life insurance market will be a slow process, measured in years if not decades.