During the 2nd quarter of 2019 Austria’s insurance undertakings received premiums of € 4.23 billion, an increase of € 87 million or +2.09% compared to the corresponding period during the previous year (Q2 2018). The increase could be traced back to the “non-life/accident” insurance sector, which increased by +3.60% to € 2.33 billion as well “health” which increased by +4.27% to € 572 million. In contrast, premium volume fell by -1.32% to € 1.33 billion in the life insurance sector. For the first half of 2019 in total, premium volume increased by +1.07% to € 9.48 billion compared to the first half of 2018. € 5.59 billion came from non-life and accident insurance (+3.81%), €1.16 billion from health insurance (+3.81%) and € 2.74 billion from life insurance (-4.91%). These findings have emerged from the Report on the Austrian Insurance Sector for the second quarter of 2019, which was published today by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA).
Improved earnings situation
Compared to the first half of 2018, the technical result during the reporting period increased across all sectors by +41.90% to € 434.24 million and the financial result increased by +33.05% in comparison with the preceding year. Consequently the result from ordinary activities increased by +65.78% to € 1.15 billion based on a low value in the first half of 2018.
Adequate reserves
The total of all investments at market value (excluding investments in the area of unit-linked and index-linked life insurance) stood at € 110.02 billion at the end of the first half of 2019, an increase of +2.91%, having stood at € 106.91 billion at the end of 2018.
Hidden net reserves (the balance of net reserves and net losses) of investments at the end of second quarter have increased by +8.67% to € 22.63 billion compared to the preceding quarter. The reserve ratio at the end of the reporting period stood at 25.05%.
The solvency capital requirement of Austrian insurance undertakings pursuant to the Insurance Supervision Act 2016 was satisfactory as at the middle of 2019: More than half of the undertakings possess more than 220% of the legally required solvency capital requirement (SCR), i.e. more than twice the required amount of own funds. The average value (median) of all insurance undertakings stands at 238.17%.
The full quarterly report can be found (in German only) online on the FMA website.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson):
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/(0)676 88 249 516