European mutual and cooperative insurers reported another record year in terms of premium volumes and total assets held in 2016, despite Solvency II and other factors putting pressure on premium development in the region. The latest statistics on the European mutual and cooperative insurance market are from the Market InSights: Europe 2016 report published by the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) and the Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe (AMICE).
In total, mutual and cooperative insurers collectively wrote a record EUR 429 billion in insurance premiums in 2016. This represented a 0.6% growth in business volumes from 2015 levels, compared to a 1.1% decline in the total European insurance market.
2016 was the fifth consecutive year of positive premium development (and eighth year of positive growth since 2007) for the mutual and cooperative sector, accumulating to an impressive overall growth of 36.0% between 2007 and 2016; in comparison, aggregate premium levels of European insurers were only 4.4% greater in 2016 compared to 2007 levels. As a result, the collective market share of mutual and cooperative insurers has risen from 24.2% in 2007 to 31.5% in 2016.
The European mutual and cooperative insurance sector also reported record asset values in 2016, holding more than EUR 3 trillion in assets for the first time. Assets values have increased in eight of the previous nine years, resulting in an overall growth of 59.1% compared to 2007 values.
The Market InSights: Europe 2016 report also includes a year-on-year analysis of the premium and market share growth of the mutual and cooperative sector since 2007, with comparison to the rest of the European insurance sector. The report includes analysis of premium income by line of life and non-life business; a definitive list of the 30 largest European mutual and cooperative insurers; and a detailed analysis of the mutual and cooperative insurance sector in European Union (EU) markets.
The report includes further analysis into the size and reach of the 3,000 mutual and cooperative insurance companies operating in Europe today. Record membership numbers were achieved in 2016 as 429 million member/policyholders were served by the European mutual and cooperative insurance sector. Over 461,000 people were also employed within the sector in 2016.
In the foreword to the report, Grzegorz Buczkowski, CEO of the TUW SKOK (Poland) and President of AMICE, commented that the ICMIF data in the report highlights “…the important position mutual and cooperative insurers occupy in the European economic and social landscape. This responsibility confirms to us the duty AMICE has to advocate for an appropriate and fair treatment of our sector, and ensure that the application of proportionality in legislative projects such as Solvency II is properly recognised, formulated and implemented”.
The Market InSights reports are a series of market-specific reports compiled using the latest data from ICMIF’s Global Mutual Market Share research, a market intelligence report on the size and performance of the global mutual and cooperative insurance industry. The latest year-end 2016 figures highlight how the global market share of the mutual/cooperative sector grew from 24.0% in 2007 to 26.8% in 2016.
