Premiums written by Austrian insurance undertakings during the 2023 financial year stood at € 21.95 billion, an increase of 5.43% or € 1.13 bn compared with the preceding year. During the 4th quarter of 2023 alone there was an increase in premium volume of +7.51% to € 4.99 billion compared against the previous year. The premium volume for the full year is as follows: non-life and accident insurance € 14.01 bn (+9.01%), health insurance € 2.86 bn (+8.89%). In contrast, the volume of life insurance premiums fell by 4.85% to € 5.08 billion. During the 4th quarter premiums for the non-life/accident insurance sector stood at € 2.98 billion (+10.16%), in the life insurance sector at € 1.28 billion (+0.32%) and € 723.4 million in the health insurance sector (+10.54%). In 2023, the technical result compared with the previous year fell by 6.45% or € 37.69 million to € 546.73 million, while the financial result increased by 40.12% or € 874.69 million to € 3.05 billion. This resulted in an improvement in the result from ordinary activities (EGT in German) by +81.31% or + € 786.22 million to € 1.75 billion. The total of all assets at market value (excluding investments in the area of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) stood at € 106.12 billion at the end of 2023, some 3.37% or € 3.46 billion more than the corresponding value at year-end 2022. These findings have emerged from the report published by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) about the situation of the domestic insurance industry during the 4th Quarter of 2023.
Solvency position remains strong
The hidden reserves of capital investments (excluding unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) stood at € 13.13 billion at the end of 2023, an increase of € 2.35 billion (+21.69%) compared with year-end 2022. With regard to the solvency requirements pursuant to the Insurance Supervision Act 2016 (VAG 2016; Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz 2016), around nine out of ten of all insurance undertakings (87.5%) had an SCR solvency level of over 200%; 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 approx. 627% to 1,093%. 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.
Conservative Investment Policy
Solvency II balance sheets are drawn up under the market consistent principle, which means that fluctuations in market value are reflected directly in the books and the current economic value is reflected. Moreover, insurance undertakings generally pursue a conservative investment policy. As of year-end 2023, the composition of their assets was as follows: 26.51% participating interests in affiliated undertakings, 17.04% government debt instruments, 20.14% other debt instruments, 18.85% investment funds, 9.33% real estate, 4.44% loans and mortgages, 1.71% cash, 1.34% equities. The remainder was held in derivatives and other investments.
The full quarterly 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 88 249 516