Austrian insurance undertakings posted an increase in premium volume in the third quarter of 2018 by +1.34% to € 3.89 billion compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. This was the result of an increase in premium volume in the sectors non-life and accident insurance by +3.73% to € 2.1 billion as well as health insurance by +4.16 % to € 551 million. In the life insurance sector premium volume fell by -3.63% to € 1.23 billion. 56.46% of premiums came from the non-life/accident insurance sector, 30.98% from the life insurance sector and 12.56% from the health insurance sector. These findings have emerged from the Report on the Austrian Insurance Sector for the third quarter of 2018, which was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
For the first three quarters premium volume stood at € 13.27 billion (+1.53%), made up of receipts of € 7.49 bn (+3.46%) in non-life and accident insurance, € 4.11 bn
(-2.74%) in life insurance and € 1.67 bn (+4.21%) in health insurance. It is noticeable that the share of one-off premiums in the life insurance sector against regular premiums fell slightly from 14.01% to 13.93%, while on the other hand the share of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance compared with conventional life insurance increased from 23.75% to 24.73%.
Earnings under continued pressure
The technical result improved in the first nine months of 2018 in comparison with the first nine months of the preceding year by 18.40% to € 430.42 million. An decrease of -13.17%, from € 2.17 bn to € 1.88 bn was posted for the financial result. Consequently the result from ordinary activities (EGT) fell by € 101.5 million, or 10.21%, to € 892.74 million. 87% of EGT is obtained from non-life/accident insurance, 7.70% from life insurance and 4.30% from health insurance. The operating margin, ie. the ratio of EGT to premiums, stood at 6.9% during the first three quarters, 0.9% less than in the preceding year. In 2016 it stood at 9.8%.
The total of all assets at market value (excluding capital investments in unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) stood at € 107.60 billion at the end of September 2018, 3.26% less than at the corresponding point in the previous year.
Hidden net reserves (the balance of net reserves and net losses) stood at € 19.84 billion in the 3rd quarter of 2018, 6.01% less than in the preceding quarter. Hidden net reserves have been diminishing continuously since the third quarter of 2016 (€ 25.28 bn).
Solvency remains good
More than half of all insurance undertakings were able at the end of the third quarter 2018 to post a solvency capital level (SCR – Solvency Capital Requirement) in accordance with the Insurance Supervision Act 2016 of over 230%, i.e. having more than twice as high own funds than required.
The full quarterly report can be found on the FMA website (in German only) at https://www.fma.gv.at/en/insurance/disclosure/quarterly-reports/
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43 / (0) 676 / 88 249 516