Austrian insurance undertakings suffered a fall in premium volume in the second quarter of 2017 by -1.15% to € 4.00 billion compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. This was attributable to a fall in life insurance by -9.02% to € 1.33 billion, even though regular premiums only fell marginally, with customers being very reserved regarding the take-up of one-off premiums as a result of the challenging low interest environment. On the other hand, the non-life/accident insurance sector increased by +3.23% to € 2.15 billion, and health insurance sector rose by +3.56% to € 526 million. The premium volume for the first half of 2017 as a whole rose marginally to € 9.23 billion, with non-life/accident insurance increasing by +3.53 % to € 5.21 billion, and health insurance increasing by +3.81% to € 1.07 billion, with life insurance in contrast falling by -6.63% to € 2.95 billion. These findings have emerged from the Report on the Austrian Insurance Sector for the second quarter of 2017, which was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
The technical result and the financial result were once again impacted in the first six months of the year by the life insurance sector. The continuing low interest environment as well as the necessary provisioning of the additional interest provision left their respective marks in this way. Compared with the first half of 2016, the technical result across all sectors fell by 22.47% to € 327.1 million, with the financial result for the same period being 6.74 % lower than in the preceding year. Consequently the result from ordinary activities decreased by -2.13% to € 934 million.
Hidden net reserves (the balance of net reserves and net losses) at the end of last quarter have reduced by -0.97% to € 21.60 billion compared to 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 2017: More than half of the undertakings possess more than 230% 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 240.8%.
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, or +43/(0)676/882 49 516