Australia needs a strong and profitable insurance sector. Customers must have certainty that insurers have the financial strength to pay claims. At the same time, shareholders, who provide the capital to fund IAG's growth, expect returns that are commensurate with the risks associated with their investments. This year favourable conditions aligned for IAG from both an investment and underwriting perspective, helping to improve insurance profit to $792* million. The size of profit should however be viewed in context - IAG paid about $4.2* billion in claims cost during the year and the company insures more than $800 billion in property assets.
*These numbers have been extracted from IAG's Annual Report 2003/4.
indicates that KPMG has provided assurance on the figures. For more information please see the Assurance statement.