Swiss Life: premiums down in 'normalisation' move

(CercleFinance.com) - Swiss Life said that its premium income fell 20% in local currencies in the first quarter, hit by a tough comparison basis from an earlier one-off increase in business.


Switzerland's biggest life insurer cited a "normalisation" move after the "extraordinarily high" numbers of the previous year following the withdrawal of French rival AXA from the insurance business in Switzerland.

Taking this extraordinary effect into account, premiums in the first quarter of 2020 in Switzerland were 4% higher year-on-year, it said.

Premium income dropped 28% in Switzerland, although rose by 11% in France, the group's second biggest market.

Swiss Life's solvency ratio - which compares assets over liabilities to give an indication of financial strength - declined to about 180% at the end of the first quarter, from 204% three months earlier.

Even so, the ratio is still in the top third of the strategic ambition range of 140% to 190%, the company said.

Swiss Life also confirmed its financial targets as defined under its 2021 plan.

The shares were up 0.4% after these figures, outperforming a slightly lower STOXX Europe 600 Insurance index.

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