The european insurance sector
Pages | 19-28 |
2. THE EUROPEAN INSURANCE SECTOR
Th gst rate environment continues
to challenge the Europ ean insurance s ector. Mo re recent-
ly, the economic slowdown due to political uncertainty
and growing trade tensions has added additional strain
on insurers and asudden repr icing of risk pr emia cannot
be ruled out. Even tho ugh life insurers are tr ying to adapt
to these challenging circumstances by lowering guaran-
teed r ates and focusing on unit-linked products, profita-
bility remains under pressure. For non-life insurers, the
challenge is mostly r elated to increasing lo sses stemming
from climate-related risks and cyber events, which may
not be ad equately reflected in risk models based o n his-
torical data.
2.1. MARKET SHARE AND
GROWTH
Total GWP grew in 2018, but remained broadly stable
as apercentage of GDP. The sum of GWP for bot h life
and non-life insurance se ctor grew by 4 .2% on an annual
basis and amounts to around EUR 1.3 trillion at the end
of 2018. Over all GWP as apercentage of GDP remained
stable around 9% for the tot al European insurance mar-
ket, while tot al assets as ashare o f GDP slightly decre ased
from 74% to 70%. Life GWP grew most in SE and UK,
whereas asignificant d ecrease in life GWP was o bserved
in IE, LU, PL and SK (Figure 2.1). Non-life GWP increase d in
most countr ies, though asignificant de cline could be ob-
served in FI. The insurance sector r emains large relative to
the econo my in most countries , as measured by the total
assets to GDP ratio (Figure 2 .2).
The share of unit-linked business remains overall con-
stant also in 2018. Although the overall share of unit-
linked business in life GWP decreased from 43% in Q4
2017 to 41% in Q4 201 8, the me dian remains stable aro und
34% (Figure 2.3). Par tly in response to the low-yield envi-
ronment , insurers continue to focus on unit-linke d prod-
ucts as th ese contain few financial guarantees, and he nce,
are cheaper to provide and have alower capital charge
under So lvency II. Howeve r, considerable die rences re-
main across countrie s (Figure 2.4), due die rences in na-
tional mar kets and p ast misselling issue s.
Figure 2.1: Total Life and Non-Life GWP growth in 2018 (in %, year-on-year)
GWP life % changeGWP non-life % change
AT
BE
BG
HR
CY
CZ
DK
EE
FI
FR
DE
GR
HU
IS
IE
IT
LV
LI
LT
LU
MT
NL
NO
PL
PT
RO
SK
SI
ES
SE
UK
EEA
-20.0%
-10.0%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
Source: EIO PA Quarterl y Solo
Repor ting refere nce date: Q4 2018
Note: Gro wth rat es based o n local/rep orting c urrency. Ple ase note t hat changes in G WP per co untry could also be d ue to st ructural ch anges in the market, such
as arelocat ion of busine ss. This app lies in par ticular for FI and SE.
NANCIAL STABILITY REPORT
19
To continue reading
Request your trialUnlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations
