Following the significant increase in the collective last three quarters of 2014 and the near stagnation in the first quarter of 2015, the insurance market has recorded a notable decline in 2015's second quarter, with a combined decrease in insurance premiums of 15.00% year over year.
In the first six months of the financial year 2015, the overall inflow recorded a drop of 10.28% with premiums decreased by 12.98% in life insurance and 10.46% growth in the branches of non-life insurance.
With regards to life insurance, the semi-annual 12.98% collective decrease which experienced a further decline of 40.97% in products with guaranteed returns to face an increase of 17.40% of unit-linked life products. This represented a continuation of a phenomenon which was already observed in the first quarter, with the decline in business in guaranteed returns partly explained by lower yields being offered and also by a deliberate shift of customers towards unit-linked products.
The total technical reserves of life insurers stood at €146.28 billion at the end of June 2015, up 15.84% from the end of June 2014 and 0.12% compared to the end of March 2015. The slight increase of €0.18 billion in Q2 2015 is attributable to a loss in value of life insurance contracts in account units, due to the negative development of the stock market, the net inflows of some 1.89 billion and financial returns on contracts with a guaranteed rate only just compensating.
The non-life insurance increased by 10.46% over the first six months of 2015. The insurers working mainly, if not exclusively, on the Luxembourg market, registering a growth of 4.78% of their collection. With an increase of 10.84% from their collection, companies operating abroad in non-life insurance branches, excluding marine insurance, experienced a significantly faster growth. The growth of international business has regularly experienced a growth rate above 10% since 2012, which was temporarily absent in 2014. Marine insurance, for which only the figures for the 1st quarter are available, increased by 22.55% during this period.
