During Q1 2014 Austria’s insurance undertakings recorded a premium volume of
€ 7.85 billion, which represents a rise of 6% over the same quarter of the previous year. Of this figure, domestic premium revenues accounted for € 5.12 billion (+1.36%), while premium income collected by Austrian insurance groups in other countries amounted to € 2.72 billion (+15.9%). The news was disclosed in the Report on Q4 performance of the Austrian insurance sector, published today by the Financial Market Authority FMA.
Broken down according to individual insurance sector, an increase in premium volume of 1.27% to € 1.78 billion was seen for the life assurance sector compared with the same period of the previous year. Two further segments succeeded in achieving higher premiums: non-life and accident insurance (+1.17% to € 2.86 billion) and health insurance (+2.84% to total € 480 million). The financial result was down by 7.2% on a year-on-year basis. The result from ordinary activities decreased by 2.8% to € 395.3 million following a reduction in the technical account balance (-15.1%).
The total carrying amount of assets (excluding deposits retained, investments in the area of unit-linked and index-linked life assurance, investments relating to state-sponsored retirement provision and pro rata interest) increased to € 85 billion, which corresponds to a rise of 0.26% as at the end of March 2014 compared with the previous quarter.
Hidden net reserves (the balance of hidden reserves and unrealised losses) grew by 12.88% compared with the previous quarter to a level of € 17.78 billion by the quarter-end. This puts the ratio of reserves to investments at 20.49%.
The core share ratio (listed shares, share-based investment funds, share risk in mixed funds) gave way slightly in Q1 2014, dropping from the previous quarter’s level of 3.55% to 3.47%. The extended share ratio (i.e. with the addition of non-listed shares including holdings, structured debt securities without capital guarantee and structured loans without capital guarantee) increased to 17.44%.
The financial result of foreign subsidiaries owned by Austrian groups totalled € 212 million during the first three months of 2014, an increase of 8.9% over the same period in 2013. Roughly 80% of all assets (€ 17.46 billion) were held as investments in bonds and cash. At 3.3% as at the end of March 2014, the share of investments held as reserves by foreign subsidiaries was unchanged.
You can find the full Quarterly Report (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