Private Insurance Premium Income Declined in 2016

Thomas Url
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Thomas Url: WIFO

WIFO Bulletin, 2017, vol. 22, issue 14, 133-142

Abstract: The volume of single premium payments (with long-run guarantees) almost halved in 2016. Positive effects of the tax reform were more than compensated by low interest rates, making private households increasingly shy away from contracts with long commitment periods. On the supply side, insurers were less willing to underwrite long-run guarantees. This caused premiums in the life insurance business to decline by 9 percent and the total premium intake to shrink by 1.8 percent. Robustly growing private health insurance (+4.7 percent) and a recovery in non-life and accident insurance (+1.7 percent) did not prevent a further drop of the insurance density to 4.9 percent of GDP. Forecasts for 2017 and 2018 expect that this development will continue, albeit at a slower pace. The first year of experience with Solvency II revealed some scope for interpretation across the member countries' supervisory bodies. Austrian insurers emerged from the stress test in 2016 with sufficient amounts of solvency capital.

Keywords: Private insurance; Solvency II; stress testing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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