Thursday, 2 February 2012
French non-life sector picks up with growth in 2011
The French non-life insurance sector resumed with growth in 2011, making a sharp contrast with the performance of life insurance lines, which closed the year 14% down.
Chairman of FFSA, Bernard Spitz
Numbers released by Fédération Française des Societés d'Assurance (FFSA), France's insurance association, show that the volume of premiums collected by non-life insurers reached €48bn, a 4% increase from the previous year.
The non-life sector had not achieved such levels of premium growth rises since 2004.
Insurance products sold to companies and professionals reversed the trend seen in 2010, when premiums shrank by 1%, to grow 3% last year to €6.1bn.
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Construction insurance posted a 1% hike to €2.3bn, and civil liability lines closed the year stable at €3.4bn.
Other commercial insurance lines rose by 7% to €8.8bn, estimates FFSA. Non-life products for individuals, like home and motor insurance, grew 5%, compared to 3% the previous year.
The association claims that the non-life sector was benefited by the relatively low number of natural catastrophes seen in France the past year.
Non-life claims fell by 5% in 2011, while they had gone up by 11% back in 2009.
But the progression of non-life insurance lines was obscured by the poor results registered by life insurers.
The French life sector saw premiums fall by 12% to €141.6bn last year, dragged down by the sharp drop of life insurance products (-14%).
Claims, however, shot 16% up to €162bn, all lines combined.
As a result, the insurance sector as a whole shrunk by 9% in 2011 in terms of premiums collected.
The dire results drove the Chairman of the FFSA, Bernard Spitz, to ask for measures to boost the life insurance industry.
FFSA has also announced that French insurers own some €206.5bn in French sovereign bonds in their combined portfolio, which represents a share of about 46% of the debt held by French residents.
The total portfolio of investments of French insurers amounts to €1.71tn, after a 1.3% hike in 2011. One third of total assets is composed of sovereign bonds issued by OECD countries.
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