Profits of insurance companies rise to €1.1b in 2019

Combined profit of non-life insurance, life insurance and employment pension insurance companies for the financial period grew in 2019 to EUR 1.1 billion from the previous year's EUR 0.9 billion, according to Statistics Finland.

Insurance companies’ investment assets amounted to EUR 131 billion on 31 December 2019. In addition, life insurance companies had investments covering unit-linked insurances to the tune of EUR 41 billion.

Employment pension insurance companies’ premium income and claims paid comprise statutory pension insurance. Premium income and claims paid continued growing in 2019. Premium income grew by 5.8 per cent to EUR 15.6 billion.

Claims paid, in turn, increased by 5.6 per cent to EUR 16.3 billion. Claims incurred, which in addition to claims paid, include change in the provision for outstanding claims, grew from the previous year by 4.9 per cent to EUR 17.7 billion.

Investment activities were profitable for employment pension insurance companies in 2019. The net income of investments grew to EUR 6.2 billion from the previous year's EUR 1.3 billion.

The income of investments grew by 33.0 per cent and the expenses increased by 17.2 per cent. Particularly higher sales profits increased income from investment activities. The balance sheet value of investments increased by 6.2 per cent to EUR 101.7 billion. Shares and participations continued growing at the same time as the share of money market instruments in investment assets continued their decline. The balance sheet value of shares and participations grew by 12.2 per cent to EUR 68.5 billion and their share was 67 per cent of all investments of employment pension insurance companies.

At the end of 2019, technical provisions totalled EUR 105.9 billion. The growth from the year before amounted to 5.2 per cent.