Austria’s insurance sector was able to hold its own during the 1st Quarter of 2017 amid continuing difficult market conditions. The volume of premiums written increased by +1.05% to € 5.22 billion compared to the 1st Quarter of 2016. Premium volumes for the individual sectors stood at EUR 3.06 billion or 58.60% (+3.74%) in the non-life/accident insurance sector, EUR 1.62 billion or 30.97% (-4.56%) in the life insurance sector and EUR 545 million 10.43% for the health insurance sector. The fall in the life insurance sector was in particular attributable to a decrease by 16.06% for one-off premiums as well as to a fall of -8.15% for conventional life insurance.
Weakened earnings situation
The earnings dynamic, however, fell strongly during the first three months of the year (compared with Q1/2016): The technical result decreased by -14.56%, while the financial result decreased by -16.21%, with the effect that the result from ordinary activities fell by -16.22% or € 67 million to € 346 million. The total of all assets at market values (excluding unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) fell (in comparison to Q4 2016) by € 440 million to € 110.24 billion. These findings have emerged from the Report on the Austrian Insurance Sector for the first quarter of 2017, which was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
High Reserves
Despite these challenges, Austrian insurance undertakings continue to have a stable position. While the hidden net reserves (the balance of net reserves and net losses) at the end of the 1st Quarter 2017 fell by -4.52% to € 21.81 billion, which nevertheless still constitutes a ratio of reserves to investments of 24.31%. The solvency requirements in accordance with Solvency II, which take into account the individual risk profile of every undertaking, also provide a satisfactory report for the sector. More than half of the undertakings possess more than 200% of the legally required solvency capital requirement (SCR). The average value (median) of all insurance undertakings stands at 236.8 %. And around half of the insurance undertakings fulfil the Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) by around 519 to 973%.
The full quarterly report can be found on the FMA website (in German only) at https://www.fma.gv.at/en/insurance/disclosure/quarterly-reports/
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/(0)676/882 49 516