Data from Bank Negara Malaysia's website shows that life insurance businesses in Malaysia are mostly owned by foreign entities. As far as the locally owned entities are concerned there are only four of them, namely, Etiqa Life Insurance Bhd, Hong Leong Assurance Bhd, Axxa Affin Life Insurance Bhd and Sunlife Malaysia Assurance Bhd.
Apart from that, the government also gives relief to life policy buyers up to a maximum of RM3,000. This shows the importance of life insurance to the people and the country. For 2019, the gross income from life insurance companies showed a sharp increase of RM44bil of which RM35bil was contributions from foreign owned companies and RM8bil was from locally owned life insurance companies.
Comparing the percentage of policy sales for foreign owned and locally owned life insurance companies, the percentage of sales for foreign owned companies showed a downward trend from 86% for 2018 to 81% for 2020, while locally owned companies reflect an increase in policy sales which is 14% for 2018 and 19% for 2020. The possible increase may be due to the type of products offered, promotions and advertising made.