During Q4 2017 Austria’s insurance undertakings recorded a premium volume of € 3.91 billion, which represents an increase of +0.55% over the same quarter of the previous year. In 2017 overall the premium volume amounted to € 16.98 billion, marking an increase of 0.36% compared with the preceding year. These findings have emerged from the Report on the Austrian Insurance Sector for the fourth quarter of 2016, which was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
The volume of premiums in the 4th Quarter of 2017 consisted of € 1.87 billion in the non-life/accident insurance sector (+3.00%), € 1.51 billion in the life assurance sector (-3.32%) and € 530 million in the health insurance sector (+3.63%).
In 2017 as whole the volume of premiums fell to € 5.73 billion due to a reduction of 5.07% in the life assurance sector. The sectors non-life and accident insurance and health insurance were able post increases of 3.27% to € 9.11 billion and 3.77% to € 2.13 billion respectively.
Compared with 2016, the technical result increased in 2017 by 3.75%, while a -7.74% reduction was observed in the financial result. This led to an decrease by 12.02% in the result from ordinary activities to € 1.24 billion.
The total of all assets at market value (excluding investments in the area of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) stood at € 108.98 billion at the end of 2017, a decrease of -0.67% or – € 730 million below the corresponding value at year-end 2016.
Hidden net reserves (the balance of net reserves and net losses) at the end of Q4 2017 stood at € 21.88 billion an increase of + 0.13% over the value at the end of the preceding quarter. Compared to year-end 2016 they have fallen by € 963 million or – 4.2%.
The core share ratio (i.e. listed shares, share-based investment funds and share risk in mixed funds) increased to 4.11%, compared with 4.03% in the 3rd quarter of 2017. The extended share ratio i.e. also including unlisted shares (including participations), structured debt securities without capital guarantees and loans without capital guarantees decreased from 15.87% to 15.09%.
With regard to the new solvency requirements pursuant to the Insurance Supervision Act 2016 (VAG 2016; Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz 2016) which undertakings have been required to comply with since 1.1.2016, more than half of all insurance undertakings had an SCR solvency level of over 240%; i.e. holding more than double the amount of own funds as required. The Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) measures whether the insurance undertaking is able with 99.5% probability within the next twelve months to absorb unexpected losses as well as to be able to meet its obligations towards policyholders. For around half of all insurance undertakings the MCR solvency level was in the range between 557% to 955%. The Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) is the minimum amount of own funds that the insurance undertaking is required to hold in any case and at all times.
The full 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