Austria’s insurance undertakings recorded a premium volume of € 26.45 billion in domestic and international markets overall in 2013, which represents an increase of 2.9% on 2012. Of this volume, € 16.61 billion was accounted for by the Austrian insurance market (+1.64%) and € 9.84 billion (+5.1%) was collected by Austrian groups outside Austria. The fourth quarter of 2013 saw a slight increase in premiums, up by 3.2% to € 3.80 billion compared with the same period one year earlier. The news was disclosed in the Report on Q4 2013 Performance of the Austrian Insurance Sector, published today by the Financial Market Authority (FMA).
In terms of the different insurance sectors, increases in premiums were seen overall in 2013 in the non-life/accident insurance sector (+2.64% to € 8.37 billion) and the health insurance sector (+3.83% to € 1.82 billion). The life assurance sector recorded revenues of € 6.42 billion, which equals -0.23%.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, all three insurance sectors showed slight increases: life assurance was up by +0.32% to € 1.64 billion, non-life and accident insurance by +6.1% to € 1.71 billion, and health insurance by +3.6% to € 454 billion.
Due to the positive development in the segments of non-life and accident insurance the technical account balance rose by +30% in 2013. The financial result dropped by 1.5% from the previous year. The result from ordinary activities increased by +9.2% to € 1.52 billion.
The total carrying amount of all assets (assets excluding deposits retained, investments in the area of unit-linked and index-linked life assurance, pro rata interest) increased to € 84.78 billion as at the end of 2013, which corresponds to a rise of +1.34% compared with the previous quarter or +3.0% compared year-on-year.
The core share ratio (listed shares, share-based investment funds, share risk in mixed funds) rose slightly in Q4 2013, climbing to 3.55% from the previous quarter’s value of 3.50%. The extended share ratio, i.e. with the addition of unlisted shares (including holdings), structured debt securities without capital guarantee and loans without capital guarantee, fell slightly from 15.34% in Q3 2013 to 15.14% in Q4 2013.
The financial result of foreign subsidiaries owned by Austrian groups was down by -4.6%, to € 653 million. Roughly 78% of all assets (€ 15.98 billion) were held as investments in bonds and cash. The share of investments held as reserves by foreign subsidiaries amounted to 2.9% as at the end of December 2013.
The full Quarterly Report can be found (in German) on the FMA website 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