Posts

Keeping Up With The Market – October 2022

/in /by

Every month we help you keep up with the Belgian insurance market.

Acquisitions

 

AG Insurance and Ethias, together with EthiasCo and Société Fédérale de Participations et Investissement (SFPI), will buy out 4,6% of Fluxys’ shares in the Canadian group CDPQ, after approval of Publigaz and EIP, other shareholders.

The buyout aims at achieving two objectives:

  • Supporting Fluxys’ strategy to develop its hydrogen and CO2 transmission infrastructure from 2025 onwards. This will contribute to developing the transition to renewable energy sources and a carbon-neutral society by 2050.
  • Strengthening the Belgian anchoring of a crucial infrastructure for the country.

 

Home | Athora

Earlier this month, Athora Belgium finalised the acquisition of a life insurance closed-book portfolio from NN Insurance Belgium. The portfolio includes 200.000 contracts.

Athora counts more than 3 million clients, has 96 billion in pro forma consolidated assets under management, and over 2 000 employees. The life insurance company operates in 5 European countries and is known for its transactional findings.

 

 

Partnerships

       

Axa Belgium and GoodPlanet Belgium join forces to develop hundreds of climate workshops for 2nd and 3rd cycle secondary students in Brussels, Liège and Antwerp. The objective is to raise awareness of young people so that they become aware of possible individual and collective solutions.

The two partners did their first ‘Climate School Workshop’ on 14th October.

 

  

Ethias and Belfius Insurance join together with Eiffage Luxembourg, a construction group, to create a common land investment platform called LIVe.

LIVe stands for Land Investment Vehicle and this project is a first in Belgium. The process between the three partners is as follows: once the three shareholders have validated the acquisition, Eiffage will take over the reins, and the risk, of carrying out and marketing the residential and sustainable real estate development projects.

Belfius Insurance explained that the company does not take the investment risk and highlighted the opportunity ‘to have highly complementary exposure and liability in terms of risk diversification.’

The common project LIVe has an overall investment capacity of around 178 million euros to acquire properties fairly quickly in the three regions of the country.

 

 

Market

 

 

 

In recent years, the medium cost of home insurance has increased twice as fast as the health index, according to the Price Observatory. The reason for such an increase lies partly in the profitability of insurers. Therefore, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Minister of the Economy, wants to reduce the home insurance cost.

In an article published on the website of the French-speaking Socialist Party of Belgium, Pierre-Yves Dermagne explains that the adjustment of the ABEX index and the coverage for natural disasters partly explain the increase in the home insurance premium. However, according to him, the primary reason is due to the insurers’ margins and prices. Therefore, he wants to reduce them to offer fair prices for households.

According to Assuralia, the average profitability of home insurance increased from 4.4% to 18% between 2014 and 2021.

Moreover, the Federal Public Service of Finance declared that the tax on securities accounts, including a 0.15% levy on securities accounts over €1 million, will be extended to Belgian accounts of Luxembourg insurers.

This change results from a recent case law of the Court of Cassation and will have consequences for contracts in the Branch 23. Following this, the work of the financial institutions liable for the tax will be more complicated, as time is short for Belgian financial institutions to carry out required reporting and payments. If they do not have enough time, Luxembourg companies will have to pay the tax themselves.

On 5th October, the parliamentary committee on the economy unanimously approved the bill of MPs Robby De Caluwé (Open Vld) and Kathleen Verhelst (Open Vld) that will allow the right to be forgotten in guaranteed income insurance.

However, the political party N-VA wants this right to be extended to all insurances. Moreover, this party wants to remove the obligation to declare in insurance policies. The party’s members find it contradictory to the very essence of the right to be forgotten.

 

The valuation of the assets and liabilities of Integrale, acquired by Monument Re in early January, has been discussed by bondholders and shareholders of the company.

Earlier this month, the liquidator of Integrale, lawyer Nicholas Ouchinsky (Lexlitis), announced that he would appoint a panel of experts consisting of an auditor and an actuary to draw up an independent report on the accounting valuation of the various assets and liabilities of Integrale during the financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021 as well as on the continuity of the valuation of these assets and liabilities upon the transfer of the assets of Integrale to Monument Re.

After careful observations, this valuation was approved for the period 1 January to 17 December 2021 and 18 December to 31 December 2021.

 

 

Mid-October, Ethias stated having signed the United Nations Principles for Responsible Insurance (UNPSI). The insurance company has previously joined UN Global Compact in 2014 and UN PRI in 2020.

Launched in 2012, these principles serve as a global framework for the insurance industry to address environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities.

By being engaged with these principles, Ethias is committed to reducing risks, developing innovative solutions, improving business performance and contributing to environmental, social and economic sustainability. This decision strengthens her ESG strategy, which is part of the objectives of the UNPSI.

More concretely, these objectives consist of:

  • Integrating ESG issues relevant to the insurance business into decision-making.
  • Raising awareness of ESG issues among clients and partners and encouraging them to better manage risks and develop concrete solutions.
  • Promoting global action on ESG issues within society through cooperation and dialogue with governments, regulators and other stakeholders.
  • Reporting on the implementation of the Principles and publishing their progress in a transparent manner.

 

 

Deloitte Belgium aims to recruit 1 700 new employees by 31st May. Already 6 000 people are part of the Deloitte adventure.

These recruitments are part of two objectives: to assert its role as a trainer and to support the growth of its activities. Therefore, the consulting company wants to diversify the skills of its employees.

 

 

Axa recently published her Future Risk Report 2022 and the conclusion is clear: climate risk is the greatest risk worldwide according to experts.

The Future Risk Report measures and ranks changes in the perception of emerging risks. Risk classification stems from the answers of 4 500 experts from 58 countries and a sample of 20 000 people representative of the population of 15 countries. The report is produced in collaboration with the research institute IPSOS and the geopolitical analysis consultancy Eurasia Group.

In the report’s classification, geopolitical risks come in the second position, followed by cyber risk. Energy-related risks are fourfold. Especially because of the current situation, three financial risks including financial instability, macroeconomic deterioration and monetary and fiscal tension are in the classification’s top 10.

 

 

The European Federation of Insurers and Reinsurers, Insurance Europe, issued two opinions on the following topics:

  • The European law aimed at creating a single European market for data and giving individuals and businesses more control over their data.
  • The European Commission’s proposal to extend the validity of the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation by five years.

Insurance Europe approves these two propositions. Concerning the European law, the federation explained that it will allow insurance companies to develop innovative numerical services while being beneficial for consumers.

 

 

 
Sources:

 

 

 

 

 

 

DECAVI’s Life Insurance Trophies 2022

/in /by

Last wednesday, the 23rd edition of the DECAVI’s Life Insurance Trophies was held in Brussels. Known as the Oscars of our industries, these awards aim, through in-depth analysis by a jury of specialists, to reward the best life products, and thus contribute to ensuring market transparency. 

The jury of this 2022 edition was composed of :

  • Pierre Devolder, UCL Professor, President of the jury
  • Laurent Feiner, Journalist, CEO, Decavi
  • Philippe Muys, Honorary President, Feprabel
  • Albert Verlinden, President, BZB-Fedafin
  • Marc Willame, Associate, Ensur
  • Erik Van Camp, Qualified member, IA|BE
  • Sandra Lodewijckx, Partner Lydian

This jury verified the performance and quality of all the contracts in competition on the basis of their profitability, insurance characteristics and innovation.

 

And the winners are…

 

Private Pension awards

      

Br23 awards

 

Independent pension awards

  • Private Supplementary Pension Scheme for the Self-Employed: AG (PLCI)

 

 

Risks awards

 

Innovation award (Services, claims management, products, …)

Digital

 

Social responsability  

  • AG
  • Ethias

 

Prevention

  • AXA Belgium

 

Sustainable investment

  • Belfius Insurance

 

Brokerage

  • AG

 

➡️ Check out the detailed presentation of each product

Keeping Up With The Market – September 2022

/in /by

Every month we help you keep up with the Belgian insurance market.

New products

 

 

 

Urban Data is the new tool launched by Ethias to help cities and local authorities. By collecting their own claims data, the insurance company facilitates risk prevention decisions for local authorities.

As one of the most important insurance companies on the Belgian market, Ethias holds a large amount of claims data that she decided to leverage by aggregating them to track the location of disasters on a map of municipalities, monitor their evolution, identify trends in their occurrence, etc. Thanks to this tool, cities and local authorities will be better able to define risk prevention interventions.

Discover the tool: http://solutions.ethias.be/fr/services/urbandata/ 

 

NN Wellbeing Services is the new service launched by NN, a Belgian life insurer, for the self-employed and their families. Concretely, this new service offers preventive support for the mental health of the manager, as well as personalised coaching on the latter, as NN knows that mental health issues can have serious consequences on business. For example, the policyholder will receive advice on finding a work-life balance and relaxation strategies. In addition, the service offers customisable options, such as Manager Assist which provides advice to managers on dealing with a difficult employee or productivity issues.

NN Wellbeing Services is available for all Scala disability contracts taken out from 4 September 2022.

 

Regulation

EU regulation No 1126/2008

Union européenne | Courrier international

Back in September 2022, the European Union modified the regulation about the IFRS 17 norm. The published attachment follows up on the amendment introduced by the International Accounting Standard Board (IAS) in December 2021.

This amendment helps apply transitional arrangements concerning the aforementioned norm, only for companies applying IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 for the first time. More particularly, this solves a major problem: classification differences regarding comparative information of the last period of financial information presentation. Attached to Regulation No 1126/2008, the amendment comes into effect on 29 September.

Read the Commission Regulation: Français – Nederlands – English

 

Online comparison tool from State Secretary for Consumer Protection

With a very diverse range of insurance products on the Belgian market, one knows how difficult it can be to make the right choice. Therefore, Eva De Bleeker, State Secretary for Consumer Protection, wants to develop an online comparison tool for banking and insurance products. This tool will be available from early 2023 and will help consumers to better choose the right insurance product adapted to their needs and situation. All of this is possible thanks to a rate simulator and comparison modules. This comparison tool lists the products of all informed insurers and providers.

 

News of the market

Ageas - Wikipedia

A new entity

From 1st January next year, Ageas Re will be the new reinsurance activity of the group Ageas for third parties in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The group is already active in reinsurance since 2018, but for internal entities only. With this new activity for third parties, which is part of the Impact24 strategy, Ageas expects to reach 200 million euros in net profit in 5 years.

Ageas Re will be implemented in several stages. With an allocation of 215 million euros over a five-year period for its development, the group will start by offering reinsurance services to insurers in the EMEA zone who insure individuals. Then, Ageas Re will be able to cover larger risks, such as the engineering risk. In Asia, reinsurance is provided through the collaboration with Taiping Re, which has existed since 2020.

A possible withdrawal 

According to Bloomberg, the life insurer Ageas could leave France, but the latter did not wish to comment on this subject.

Ageas recorded a turnover of 452 million euros in 2021, with a 27% drop in inflows. The life business in Portugal and Belgium fell by 14% and 5% respectively. The decision to leave France could be because of the aforementioned results in the life insurance activity (pensions and savings). However, following the implementation of its “Impact24” strategy, the group wishes to strengthen its position in Europe and Asia.

 

A few months after his nomination, Frédéric Van der Schueren, the new CEO of Belfius Insurance, expresses his desires for his mandate. His primary aim is to position the company as the 4th largest insurer in the Belgian market. To do that, he wants to boost the banking channel through the sale of insurance.

However, Frédéric Van der Schueren says that the other channels such as DVV and Corona are complementary to his objective. In addition, in view of the bancassurer’s new positioning, branches 21 and 44 will be further developed, and support will be provided in the form of a discount for the so-called “energy friendly” home insurance, i.e. insurance that contributes to energy improvements in buildings. Finally, the CEO is considering a deferral of payment for mortgage loans in the context of the current economic crisis, as well as for some premiums.

 

AXA Belgium published her half-year financial results: the insurance company presents a profit of 1,904 million euros.

Concerning the damage insurance, the company realised a profit of 5% higher for professionals and of 2% higher for individuals. Operational results remain fixed up to the amount of 193 million euros, despite storms.

Find more information on these results here.

 

MS Amlin AG announced mid-September his name change to ‘MS Reinsurance’. Being part of MS&AD’s strategy to become a global leading reinsurer, Robert Wiest, Chief Executive Officer of MS Reinsurance highlights the importance of this evolution in the context of sustainable growth, after a change in the operating landscape.

Despite the name change, clients’ offer remains unchanged and the reinsurance company operates from its usual premises.

 

Sources:

Insurance in the Metaverse

/in /by

Since Marck Zuckerberg has made metaverse one of his priorities, this technology has raised interest in diverse fields including the insurance sector. Let’s see how initiatives related to this virtual reality are progressively emerging within our industry.

What is a metaverse?

The metaverse is a virtual world that refers to a set of concepts such as virtual reality, augmented reality, extended reality or cyberspace. There is no clear definition, but Matthew Ball, CEO of the diversified holding company Epyllion wrote several essays on the subject. According to him, the metaverse is an “expansive network” of 3D simulations and persistent worlds, rendered in real-time and offering a continuous stream of identities, objects, histories, currencies, and permissions, which can be experienced by an unlimited number of users in an individual and synchronised manner. According to him, the digital worlds of the metaverse mix cyberspace, virtual reality, and the physical world and therefore do not exist in parallel with reality. Indeed, this new world allows individuals or companies to reinvent themselves in virtually.

Insurance compagnies taking the plunge

Today, more and more insurance companies are adopting a new strategy: developing insurance products in the metaverse. The aim is to offer users an immersive digital experience by creating virtual insurance policies. The metaverse thus constitutes an additional and innovative distribution channel for the companies’ products.

In 2024, the metaverse will be a market representing a business volume of 800 billion dollars according to Bloomberg Intelligence. This field therefore appears to be an investment, particularly for the insurance sector.

In February 2022, AXA France became the first French insurer to enter the metaverse by purchasing a parcel in The Sandbox, a virtual decentralised gaming platform. The objective is to create sharing spaces reserved for its talents and clients. Moreover, AXA has already immersed 1,500 employees in its virtual universe and is experimenting with HR and CSR issues. “For AXA, it is above all a discovery and learning process. Because, as a leader in insurance and a company focused on innovation, it is our responsibility to take part in these major technological advances in order to better support them in a learning process,” notes David Guillot de Suduiraut, Director of Transformation and Technology at AXA France.

The digital insurance platform Easyblue wants to position itself as a leader in metaverse issues. A round of financing has already enabled the development of a robot advisor and the objective is to digitalise the entire insurance environment for managers and also in the longer term for employees, self-employed workers, craftsmen, etc. with a digital ten-year guarantee formula.

Heungkuk Life Insurance, a subsidiary of the South Korean Taekwang Group, is the first life insurance company to join the Metaverse Alliance in August 2021. It has about 300 member companies, including Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom and Woori Bank.

Uno Re (Estonia) is the first decentralised insurance and reinsurance platform. It allows the IT community to invest, trade risks and receive a return on investment.

 

New risks emergence

As a result of the increase in access to virtual reality, new risks related to data security and health are emerging. To address these, banks and insurance companies are developing innovative services to guide individuals and businesses. Being a user of the metaverse means using an avatar that corresponds to one’s own identity, to one’s physical representation in the real world. Consequently, one of the new risks to be taken into consideration would be identity theft, either in order to access the victim’s credits or to usurp an avatar and pretend to be someone else in the virtual world with all the consequences that this entails.

In this dematerialised world, the insurer can compensate its client for all types of immaterial losses such as the crypto-currencies used by the avatars, the game currencies (V-Bucks in the game Fortnite), the tools used in games such as Minecraft, but also any virtual object that may suffer a loss. For example, this is the case for very rare virtual goods called “NFTs” (“Non-Fungible Tokens”). In addition, businesses, real estate, cars, health or virtual lives can also be damaged. In fact, an individual or a company that develops in the metaverse can take out an insurance policy adapted to their needs that will be granted according to the same criteria as in the real world.

François-Xavier Combe, founder of the digital insurance platform Easyblue, deciphers this major new challenge where all users will become guarantors of their virtual assets. “As with the Internet in its early days, there will undoubtedly be a ‘fare-west’ aspect at the start, and then regulation, which will involve protecting this property, via insurance in particular. Some people are already buying land in the metaverse, where virtual estate agents are present. Imagine that you build your own universe from this land: problems of material and intellectual property will arise. The emergence of an insurance principle is therefore necessary.”

 

The metaverse, the world of tomorrow?

According to Emmanuel Moyrand, founder of Insurtech in blockchain and member of the Board of Insurtech France, “The metaverse will be tomorrow’s market where we will insure the real (home and business and personal health and life) and the virtual (land, vehicles, avatars): going further than the Internet, the metaverse will replace it and will therefore be the place where tomorrow’s multi-channel digital customer experience will take place.”

In the next 5 years, a virtual parallel economy will be created where users can create, buy and sell goods. The meta-verse will bring a new dimension to our consumption habits by offering a new experience in terms of digital technology.

Several insurers have started to invest in the metaverse but it will take time before it truly revolutionises the sector.

Even if some insurers are taking their first steps into the virtual world, it will take some time before the metaverse starts a real revolution in the profession.

 

Sources :

Keeping Up With The Market – Jul/Aug 2022

/in /by

Every month we help you keep up with the Belgian and Luxembourg insurance market.

 

Mergers and Acquisitions

AXA & Monument

         

Back in December 2021, AXA was announcing the selling of a part of its life insurance portoflio to Monument‘s Belgian subsidiary. The regulator approve this deal in early August. In terms of technical reserves, the deal involved €2.6 billion of technical reserves.

Previously, Monument had already bought similiar  portfolio in Belgium from Allianz Benelux, ABN AMORO Life Capital Belgium and Alpha Insurance. Also, the Bermuda-based insurer Monument acquired last year the company Integrale.

Integrale

Appointed liquidator of former insurer Integrale last January, lawyer Nicholas Ouchinsky wishes the valuation of Integrale to make sure that there were no breaches of duty by Integrale’s former directors. To do so, he would like to appoint a panel of experts to analyse both Integrale and Monument Immo Management’s assets and liabilities.

On 1 september 2022, Integrale’s shareholders and bondholers received a notice to exhcange during two generale meetings at The Merode. This event might be stormy given that in April’s general meeting, the closing of the 2021 accounts did not happen given the tensions between former administrators and temporary administrators appointed by the NBB. Eventually, the provisional administrators did the closing which will be submitted to the vote of Integrale’s shareholders.

 

Regulation

EU regulation: sustainable investment products

       

The EU issue a new regulation, based on MiFId and IDD directives, which came into force on 2 August 2022. From now on, banks, fund managers and insurers have to offer sustainable investment products. Federations representing the financial and insurance sectors welcome the objective of the text. Its implementation, however, will be complicated and time-consuming, according to Febelfin and Assuralia. However, Hein Lannoy – CEO of Assuralia, said: “This is the beginning of a very important evolution, which will have an impact on the whole society”, underlines Hein Lannoy, CEO of Assuralia.

Base on sustainability criteria, new customers will be able to choose between three product categories, based on sustainability criteria. The new scheme applies to new customers. Existing customers will receive this information when their profile is updated.

Despite this noble initiative, Assuralia & Febelfin mentioned several issues such as a “complex” and “incomplete” regulation. Indeed, the nomenclature for measuring the sustainability of investment products has not yet been established. “European regulations are moving at different speeds. This makes it difficult for insurers and financial institutions,” says Hein Lannoy, CEO of Assuralia.

The two federations also critic that lack of reliable data which makes insurers and bankers currently unable to assess the sustainability of a company accurately. “This data is either lacking or not yet available in sufficient numbers. Companies will only be required to report on their sustainability performance from 2023 onwards”, points out Karel Baert, CEO of Febelfin, in a joint statement by the two federations.

 

Second pillar insurance: tax reform

The Ministry of Finance (FPS Finance) plans to reform second pillar insurance. The main objective is to extend access to all employees and progessively cancel the preferential treatment of a capital payment compared to an annuity payment and another tax rate on the capital payment following the 80% rule.

According to De Tijd, Assuralia is apparently concerned about this new plan. The federation understands the desire for simplification but reminds that the second pillar requires trust. People set up their pension plans for the long term and therefore make an agreement with the tax authorities.

 

 

News of the market

Ageas

Despite the current context regarding inflation, Ageas stays confident about the second semester. For the first time, the board decided that the company would pay interim dividend. This is part of Ageas’s strategy which aims at increasing dividend promise over the three years. Paying interim dividend allows them to reinforce this message to the shareholders who ask to distribute the available surplus capital.

CEO Hans de Cuyper confirms Ageas’s annual net profit target of one billion but agrees that it will require hard work given the inflation effect on the financial market. They expect to stabilize in Europe but less in the UK.

As for life insurance, the sales in China jumped by 35% during the second quarter. This is explained among other things by the lockdowns and long-term quarantines, especially in Shanghai.

 

FSMA

Dashboard on investment fraud

One of the main missions of the Financal Services and Market Authority (FSMA) is to combat illegal activities in the financial investments field. Early July, the authority published its biannual dashboard on investment fraud and illegal offers. It provides statistics and an overview of the main trends . this first edition highlights several elements for the first half of the year 2022:

  • 159 warnings against fraudulent entities and 169 websites have been issued by the authority since January 2022
  • 63% of the victims who reach out the FSMA are men, mostly around 50 years old
  • 47% or the consumers asked questions about a potential provider and 53% complained about a player they invested with in the last 12 months
  • the main fraud phenomenon is fraudulent trading platforms

Find more information about this dashboard here.

Sub-agent in training

In its July’s newsletter , the FSMA explained the new status of “sub-agent in training” which has been a possibility since 1 January 2022.

This status enables a “sub-agent in training” to start an insurance or reinsurance intermediation activity under that status of a self-employed person. To obtain this status, the applicant should meet all registration conditions and theoretical knowledge requirements. The relating condition to 6 months of relevant practical experience is not mandatory to access the status, but the sub-agent must acquire this experience under the enhanced supervision of an (re)insurance broker or agent.

 

Sources: