Premiums written by Austrian insurance undertakings for direct business amounted to about €3.83 billion in Q4 2011. The total premium volume consequently grew slightly by 0.05% compared with the same quarter of 2010. Broken down according to individual insurance sector, a decrease in premium volume of 6.40% was seen for the life assurance sector compared with the same period of the previous year. Increases were recorded, in contrast, for the non-life/accident (+6.81%) and health (+3.70%) sectors. The news was disclosed in the Report on Q4 performance of the Austrian insurance sector, published today by the Financial Market Authority FMA.
In the life assurance sector (including unit-linked and index-linked life assurance), a total of €1.74 billion in premium revenues was collected during Q4, which represents €163 million more than in Q3 but €119 million less than in the same quarter of the previous year. In total during 2011, a premium volume decrease of 7.2% (or €539 million) was recorded for this sector compared with 2010. This change is largely accounted for by unit-linked and index-linked life assurance (-21.1% in comparison with 2010). The volume of premiums collected for non-life and accident insurance was €1.66 billion during Q4, representing a decrease of €112 million compared with the previous quarter but an increase of €106 million when compared with Q4 of 2010. In this sector, the premium volume increased on the whole in 2011 compared with the previous year, by 4.81% or €364 million. The premium volume recorded for the health sector during Q4 of 2011 amounted to €423 million, an increase of €3 million over Q3 and of €15 million over Q4 of 2010. In a year-on-year comparison, the premium volume for health insurance was seen to grow by €58 million.
Premiums written outside Austria amounted to a total of €8.63 billion in 2011, compared with €8.16 billion in 2010. Of this total, €5.44 billion was accounted for by the balance sheet group of non-life and accident insurance and health insurance (€5.24 billion in 2010), while €3.19 billion was attributable to life assurance (2010: 2.92 billion).
When the asset structure is viewed in detail, debt securities are seen to account for more than half of the entire portfolio. Roughly 20% of assets were in the form of investment funds and 12% in shares or securities equivalent to shares, with the remainder accounted for by real estate, loans and prepayments on policies, cash at bank and in hand, and hedge funds.
The technical account balance totalled approximately €295 million in 2011, which roughly equates to a 20% decrease in comparison with the previous year. A smaller amount of capital income was transferred to the technical account from the life assurance balance sheet group, so that the result from ordinary activities increased by €62 million to €1.16 billion. The financial result dropped to €2.96 billion, decreasing by 7.5% compared with 2010.
You can find the full Quarterly Report (in German) on the FMA website at: fma.gv.at/de/statistik-berichtswesen/statistiken-unternehmen/versicherungs-unternehmen.html
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-5106
+43/(0)676/882 49 516