A mid-quarter read: the Insurance Authority put 2025 at SAR 84.3 billion in premiums, Q1 2026 profits jumped 34%, and Q2 results season shows the leaders pulling further ahead of a struggling tail.
This tracker is written mid-quarter — Q3 2026 runs to the end of September — so it is a reading of the quarter in progress, not a scorecard of a finished one. Two things have defined the Saudi insurance summer so far: the Insurance Authority's full-year 2025 release at the end of July, and a Q2 results season that shows the market's leaders and its tail moving in opposite directions.
The one-paragraph summary: the market's top line remains strong and its middle remains squeezed. Premiums grew double digits in 2025 to SAR 84.3 billion, listed-sector profits rebounded sharply in the first quarter of 2026 largely on investment income, and second-quarter disclosures so far show dispersion — a reinsurer more than doubling profit while the largest composite insurer missed analyst estimates by a wide margin.
The quarter so far
- 31 July: the Insurance Authority announced 2025 gross written premiums of SAR 84.3 billion, up 10.7% on 2024, with claims paid rising 10% to SAR 53 billion — growth and claims running nearly in step.
- July-August: Q2 2026 results season for the 20-plus listed insurers, still concluding as we publish.
- Backdrop: Milliman's analysis of listed insurers' full-year 2025 accounts recorded a 40.8% drop in net income to SAR 2.2 billion and a loss ratio worsening to 89.3% from 86.7% — the profitability base the 2026 recovery is being measured against.
Results season: recovery at the top, losses in the tail
First-quarter 2026 numbers set an optimistic tone: combined net profits of listed insurers reached SAR 943 million, up 34% year on year, per Asharq Al-Awsat's compilation. But the composition matters. Bupa Arabia alone took roughly SAR 387 million — about four-tenths of the entire sector's profit — with Tawuniya at SAR 288 million and Al Rajhi Takaful at SAR 114 million. Nine of 26 companies posted losses. Much of the improvement came from investment income and reinsurance outcomes rather than underwriting, which is welcome but not the same as the claims environment easing.
Second-quarter disclosures continue the dispersion theme. Saudi Re reported a 118% jump in Q2 profit. Tawuniya, meanwhile, posted net profit of SAR 321.8 million — about 24% below ANB Capital's estimate — a reminder that even the market's flagship is finding claims costs hard to outrun. A market where the top three earn most of the profit pool while a third of companies lose money is a market still heading toward consolidation, whatever the headline growth says.
Three numbers to hold onto
- SAR 84.3 billion: 2025 gross written premiums, the base every 2026 growth claim will be measured against.
- 89.3%: the listed sector's 2025 loss ratio. Until quarterly disclosures show this bending down, profit recoveries built on investment income remain hostage to markets.
- 9 of 26: companies in loss in Q1 2026. Watch whether the Q2 count shrinks; if it does not, expect the merger conversation to get louder in Q4.
What we are watching through September
The remaining Q2 disclosures, first: whether the profit dispersion narrows or widens as smaller insurers report. Second, any supervisory follow-through on the themes the Authority attached to its 2025 release — beneficiary protection and capital strength — which historically arrive as circulars in the months after the annual results. Third, motor and medical pricing signals: with claims growing at 10%, quarterly repricing behaviour in the compulsory lines is the single best forward indicator of both 2026 margins and consumer premium pain.
A note on method: this tracker mixes audited full-year 2025 figures with unaudited quarterly disclosures and press compilations; sources for each are linked below. Mid-quarter readings are provisional by nature — the Q4 edition will score this quarter properly once it closes.