This e-Alert reviews the position of participating (par) funds in Singapore at year-end 2024, based on public information published in 2025, and compares the results with 2023.

Highlights

• Investment returns: The simple average of returns across all companies in 2024 was 5.37%, which is lower than the 6.16% for 2023, but still well above the current illustration cap of 4.25% for Singapore-dollar (SGD) denominated par business.
• Variation in returns across insurers: Prudential (8.26%) and Tokio Marine (7.94%) were at the upper end of the range, but Singlife (4.10%), FWD (3.90%), HSBC (II) (3.81%), and Etiqa (2.04%) were all below the 4.25% illustration cap rate.
• Yield curve shifts: There was a drop in yields at the short end of the curve, but yields rose between 55 basis points and 73 basis points for tenors of five years to 20 years, steepening the curve.
• Equity backing ratio (EBR): Prudential experienced the highest return and had the second-highest EBR, but Tokio Marine had the second-highest return despite having one of the lower EBRs.
• Performance over 2023 to 2024: All but two companies have had annualised returns greater than 4.5% on a geometric basis, except Etiqa (3.75%) and HSBC (II) (3.90%).
• Fund solvency requirements (FSR): The aggregate-level FSR rose to 184%, up from 174%, driven by stronger financial resources.
• Surplus account (SA): The increase in the aggregate SA across the industry has been driven by Tokio Marine, which had a SGD 1,074 million increase.