Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

5. Insurance services 
3.99.  Insurance services covers the provision of 
various types of insurance to non-residents by resident 
insurance enterprises, and vice versa. These services are 
estimated or valued by the service charges included in 
total premiums rather than by the total value of the 
premiums. The estimation procedures recommended in 
the present Manual (as in BPM5) are described in box 4.  
3.100. The present Manual recommends that insurance 
services be disaggregated into five separate 
components––life insurance and pension funding, 
freight insurance,  other direct insurance,  reinsurance, 
and  auxiliary services to insurance. This is a 
disaggregation of the BPM5 classification. Information 
on gross premiums and gross claims, separately for each 
of life insurance, freight insurance and other direct 
insurance, which may be the basis for estimating the 
service charge, is of analytic value and is recorded in the 
memorandum items.  
3.101. Holders  of  life insurance policies, both with 
profit and without profit, make regular payments to an 
insurer (there may be just a single payment), in return 
for which the insurer guarantees to pay the policy holder 
an agreed minimum sum or an annuity, at a given date or 
at the death of the policy holder, if this occurs earlier. 
Term life insurance, where benefits are provided in the 
case of death but in no other circumstances, is a form of 
direct insurance, and is excluded here and included in 
other insurance.  
3.102.  Pension funds are separate funds established for 
the purpose of providing income on retirement for 
specific groups of employees. They are organized and 
directed by private or public employers or jointly by 
employers and their employees. They are funded by 
contributions from the employer and/or the employees 
and by the investment income earned on fund assets, and 
they also engage in financial transactions on their own 
account. They do not include social security schemes 
organized for large sections of the community that are 
imposed, controlled or financed by general government. 
Pension fund management services are included. In the 
case of pension funds, “premiums” are generally 
described as “contributions”, while “claims” are 
generally described as “benefits.”  
3.103.  Freight insurance  services  relate to insurance 
provided on goods that are in the process of being 
exported or imported, on a basis that is consistent with 
the measurement of goods f.o.b. and freight 

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transportation  as described in paragraphs 3.67-3.70 
above. This means that freight insurance services should 
be included in the compiling economy when they (a) 
relate to exports of goods beyond the customs frontier of 
the compiling economy and are supplied by resident 
insurers (credits) or (b) relate to imports of goods to the 
compiling economy, beyond the customs frontier of the 
exporting economy when they are provided by non-
resident insurers (debits).
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 In addition, freight insurance 
services includes services related to other transportation 
of goods, where the insurance services are provided 
between a resident and a non-resident of the compiling 
economy. 
3.104.  Freight insurance provides coverage against theft 
of, damage to, or complete loss of freight. Box 4 
describes the recommended method for estimating 
freight insurance services. Excluded from the coverage 
of  freight insurance services is the insurance of the 
vehicles that are used to transport the goods.  
3.105.  Other direct insurance covers all other forms of 
casualty insurance. Included are term life insurance; 
accident and health insurance (unless these are provided 
as part of government social security schemes); marine, 
aviation and other transport insurance; fire and other 
property damage; pecuniary loss insurance; general 
liability insurance; and other insurance, such as travel 
insurance and insurance related to loans and credit cards. 
3.106.  Reinsurance  is the process of subcontracting