In the second quarter of 2016, Austrian insurance undertakings suffered a fall in premium volume by -3.55% to € 4.05 billion compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. This was attributable to a substantial fall in life assurance by -12.11% to € 1.46 billion, since although regular premiums only fell marginally, the subscription of one-off premiums was very restrictive for insurers in light of the challenging low interest environment. On the other hand, in the non-life/accident insurance sector premiums increased by + 1.35% to € 2.08 billion, and rose by +5.25% to € 507 million in the health insurance sector. Premium volume fell by -3.67% during the first half of the year to € 9.22 billion, with non-life/accident insurance increasing by +1.23 % to € 5.03 billion, and health insurance increasing by + 4.84% to € 1.03 billion, while life assurance on the other hand fell by -12.72% to € 3.16 billion. These findings have emerged from the Report on the Austrian Insurance Sector for the second quarter of 2016, which was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
The technical result of Austrian providers improved during the first six months of 2016 by +26.7% to € 421.9 million compared with the first half of 2015. The financial result increased marginally, by +0.56%, compared to the preceding year. Consequently the result from ordinary activities increased by +6.2% to € 954.4 million. The strongly improved result from ordinary activities in the life assurance sector (+51%) can in particular be traced back to an increase in the financial result as a result of the ongoing rolling over of hidden reserves from bonds and real estate. In the non-life/accident insurance sector, with a result from ordinary activities around the same as in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the lower financial result (-12%) was offset by a strongly improved technical result (+20%). This was generally attributable to a strongly improved claims ratio.
Hidden net reserves (the balance of net reserves and net losses) at the end of last quarter have risen by 4.92% to € 24.55 billion in comparison with the preceding quarter.
The solvency capital requirement of Austrian insurance undertakings pursuant to the Insurance Supervision Act 2016 was satisfactory as at the middle of 2016: More than half of the undertakings possess more than 200% of the legally required solvency capital requirement (SCR), i.e. twice as much own funds as required. The average value (median) of all insurance undertakings stands at 214.5%.
The full quarterly report can be found on the FMA website (in German only) at https://www.fma.gv.at/versicherungen/offenlegung/quartalsberichte/
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson):
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/(0)676/882 49 516