The data published by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA on the Swiss insurance market show lower results in 2020, a year marked by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Besides lower technical results, reduced gains from investment activity were responsible for this. By contrast, gross premiums generated by Swiss insurance companies proved to be largely unaffected by the slowdown in economic activity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Swiss insurance companies achieved aggregate annual profits of CHF 7.5 billion in 2020, which represents a 51% decrease from the previous year. The annual profits of life insurers fell by 33% to CHF 1 billion, while those of non-life insurers fell by 38% to CHF 6.3 billion. Reinsurers reported a small aggregate annual profit of CHF 0.2 billion in the year under review (2019: CHF 3.6 billion). Swiss insurance companies’ equity remained almost constant in the 2020 financial year, despite the unfavourable economic conditions (–0.4% to CHF 87.4 billion). Due to the reduced annual profits, however, the aggregate return on equity fell by 8.76 percentage points to 8.58%.
FINMA publishes an annual report on the activity of supervised insurance companies. The insurance market report 2020 contains statistical data for the total market as well as for the life, non-life and reinsurance sectors in aggregated form. Like last year, it also contains data on group life reporting for the occupational pension schemes of private life insurers in the second pillar. In addition, FINMA publishes electronic tables for the insurance market report and detailed information about the operating statement of occupational pensions (charts and transparency schemes) on its website.
