- The improvement is motivated by the Life branch, which grows 21.39%, although that of Non-Life also increases 7.5%
- The overall solvency ratio of the sector stood at 2.39 times the SCR, in accordance with the new Solvency II regulations
The volume of premiums accrued by the insurance sector experienced a growth of 13.75% at the end of last year, to 57.073 million euros, as can be deduced from the 2016 Insurance and Pensions Report that has been published today on its website the General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Plans.
This business improvement has been motivated by the Life branch, which has experienced a growth of 21.39%, although the Non-Life branch has also registered a good performance, with an increase of 7.45%. This important growth causes, for the first time in recent years, the percentage of premiums on national GDP to reach 5.83%.
The activity of the insurance sector during 2016 has been marked by the entry into force of Solvency II. The changes in the solvency measure are reflected in the report: solvency margin data are offered until 2015 and mandatory solvency capital coverage data for 2016. On the other hand, the status of coverage of technical provisions disappears.
Despite the entry into force of this new more demanding regulation, the overall solvency ratio of the sector stood at 2.39 times the SCR, with an excess of 139% and a bullish behavior in the quarterly results of 2016.
The technical-financial result improves compared to that of the previous year for both the Life branch (7.9% versus 7.0% in 2015) and Non-Life (10.6% compared to 9.6% in 2015 ), in both cases motivated by the improvement in the technical results of the insurance business, and with worsening in the financial results due to the lower profitability of its investment portfolio due to the low interest rate environment. In this context, the entities are strengthening the technical result and compensating for the lower financial results.
In relation to investments, public fixed income continues to be the category of assets of greater weight in the total (53.04%) and private fixed income stabilizes its participation in the total (21.72%) after the reduction of its Weight of recent years.
The assets managed in pension plans and funds amounted to 106,466 million euros in 2016, which represents an increase of 2.37% compared to the previous year. This growth in managed equity contrasts with the decreasing trend in the number of participant accounts (0.44% decrease), which began in 2011. On the other hand, equity in collective insurance stood at 26,585 million euros; in PPAs, 12,293 million euros; in Business Social Welfare Plans, 317 million euros; and in dependency insurance, 18 million euros. In total, 145,679 million euros representing almost 8% of the financial savings of Spanish families.
