The insurer achieved the goals it had set itself a year earlier than planned.
(Photo: press photo)
Cologne The Cologne-based insurer Zurich Germany has set itself more ambitious goals for the next three years. With property insurance, the German subsidiary of the Swiss insurance group wants to grow more than before. In addition, the sales cooperation with Postbank should give new impetus to the life insurance business. This was announced by Zurich Germany boss Carsten Schildknecht on Wednesday at a press conference.
According to Schildknecht, Zurich Germany has already achieved the goals defined for the years 2018 to 2023 a year earlier. As part of the new strategy program up to 2025, premiums in the property-casualty segment are now to increase by four to six percent per year. Most recently, the insurer had set itself an annual growth target of three to five percent.
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As before, new business in life insurance is expected to increase by eight to ten percent a year – contrary to the industry trend. The insurance association GDV expects business to decline this year, since investments in bank accounts, for example, will become more attractive again as interest rates rise.
Zurich Germany still wants to win more customers. While the company was on a shrinking course until 2017, the number of customers rose significantly to over eleven million between 2018 and 2022. According to CFO Torsten Utecht, the mark of twelve million customers could be exceeded this year.
Insurance premiums fall below six billion euros
He was satisfied with the 2022 financial year, even if Zurich Germany’s insurance premiums fell by 5.7 percent year-on-year to less than six billion euros. In life insurance, gross premiums fell by 14.7 percent to 3.1 billion euros. Utecht explained this, among other things, with a special transaction by the pension fund in 2021.
The sale of legacy life insurance with guaranteed interest rates to the processor Viridium, which Zurich announced last year, is expected to be completed in the third quarter.
In new business with unit-linked policies, however, the insurer achieved an increase of 24 percent. Success depends heavily on the cooperation with Deutsche Bank. Its subsidiary Postbank has also been offering Zurich insurance products since 2023. With about 500 policies sold per week, the cooperation got off to a very good start, says Schildknecht.
The German head of the Swiss insurance group relies on cooperation with Deutsche Bank and Postbank.
(Photo: press photo)
In property and casualty business, gross premiums rose by 6.7 percent to almost 2.9 billion euros last year. The partnership with the electronics chain Media Markt Saturn, through which Zurich Germany sells warranty extensions, is noticeable here. In industrial insurance, the company achieved a premium volume of over one billion euros for the first time in 2022.
The operating result of Zurich in Germany, which also includes the subsidiary DA Direkt, was 449 million euros in 2022, significantly higher than in the previous year. On the cost side, Schildknecht still sees room for improvement. The expense ratios have been brought to a competitive level. However, the aim is to be better than the market average.
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