The Austrian insurance sector has made a strong start to the 2010 financial year. Premium revenues have increased in all balance sheet groups during the 1st quarter of 2010. During this period, the industry generated income from ordinary activities of €374 million, its best result in five years. The value of the assets managed by the Austrian Pensionskassen rose by 3.5% to €14.2 billion during the 1st quarter of 2010; the sector’s performance during the period was 2.93%.
Insurance sector
As at the end of March 2010, the total premiums written (direct business, i.e. excluding reinsurance) by the Austrian insurance market was €4.97 billion. This represents a 3% rise in comparison with the 1st quarter of 2009. Life assurance premium volumes rose most strongly, with a year-on-year increase of slightly over 5% to €1.97 billion. However, non-life and accident insurance and health insurance also achieved increases, up by 1.46% and 2.55% respectively.
The technical account balance was €171 million (Q1 2009: €25 million). The reasons for this improvement included a rise in premium revenues, as well as lower costs for insurance claims. The financial result of €797 million was also the best result for five years (Q1 2009: €407 million). Revenue from capital investment and interest payments was sustained, while expenditure on capital investment and interest fell significantly year-on-year.
As at the end of the 1st quarter the total volume of assets managed by Austrian insurance undertakings amounted to €87.36 billion. Hidden net reserves continued to rise compared with the previous quarter, totalling €7.94 billion as at the end of March.
The core share ratio (i.e. listed shares, share-based investment funds, share risk in mixed funds) continued to fall, at 3.85%. The same was true of the extended share ratio (consisting of the core share ratio plus non-listed shares, structured debt securities without a capital guarantee and structured loans without a capital guarantee), which registered 16.22%.
Pension company sector
The assets managed by the Austrian Pensionskassen increased by 3.5% during the 1st quarter of 2010 to €14.2 billion. In comparison, the assets managed by insurance undertakings as part of the occupational group insurance plans rose by 1.8% to €419.2 million.
The number of beneficiaries of the Pensionskassen rose by 7,400 (1.0%) during the period to the current level of 749,789. These beneficiaries are managed through 138 investment and risk sharing groups, four more than in the final quarter of 2009. This rise is primarily due to the provision of additional investment and risk sharing groups in the context of life-cycle models. Pension company performance was 2.93% during the 1st quarter of 2010. Single-employer Pensionskassen achieved a slightly better result (3.34%) than their multi-employer counterparts (2.87%). In relation to asset investments, a reduction in bank deposits by 4 percentage points to 5.8% of the invested assets was observed alongside an increase of 3.3 percentage points in share exposure to 30.1%. The proportion of invested assets constituted by government and corporate bonds was unchanged, remaining at around 55.2% during the 1st quarter.
Austria’s Financial Market Authority FMA will from now on publish its quarterly reports on the insurance and pension company sector regularly through the FMA website.
For further information please contact
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0676)/882 49 516