June 27, 2022 – Allianz Direct, HDI and DA Direkt recorded the largest premium declines in motor insurance from 2015 to 2020. According to the “Industry Monitor 2015-2020: Motor Insurance” by VERS Leipzig, five other players from the top 50 in terms of premium income shrank.
The premium volume in motor vehicle insurance (total) has risen significantly in recent years. numbers of General Association of the German Insurance Industry eV (GDV) according to the increase over a ten-year period was almost 40 percent.
The strongest growth was recorded in the 2013 financial year (plus 5.8 percent). Most recently, by far the weakest rate of increase was recorded at 1.1 percent (to 28.85 billion euros). From 2015 to 2020, the industry increased the premium volume by around one seventh.
Big differences in contribution development
Huge differences can be observed in the development of premium income at company level. For eight actors, the income from contributions even fell between 2015 and 2020. This is shown by the “Industry Monitor: Motor Insurance 2015-2020”. V.E.R.S. Leipzig GmbH. It shows numerous key figures of the 50 largest players with a market share of around 88 percent.
The biggest losses were with almost a fifth each Allianz Direct Versicherungs-AG (to 163.5 million euros), the HDI Insurance Ltd (to less than 559.8 million euros) and the DA Deutsche Allgemeine Versicherung AG (DA Direkt; to 257.7 million euros). the Garanta Insurance Ltd shrank by almost nine percent (to 152.2 million euros).
Other motor insurers with declines
They had reduction rates of over seven percent each Axa Insurance Ltd (to 1,277.2 million euros) and the Regional Fire Fund Hanover (VGH; to 395.6 million euros).
They lost almost five percent Oldenburg state fire fund (to 64.1 million euros). At the DEVK Deutsche Eisenbahn Versicherung Sach- und HUK-Versicherungsverein aG the curve was only slightly down (minus 0.7 percent to 175.6 million euros).
Background to the minus at Allianz Direct
At Allianz Direct (formerly Allsecur), the initially clear growth trend reversed in 2019. At the time, the company had stopped selling through comparison portals, which reduced revenue by about a seventh.
In 2020 it even went down by more than a third. According to the company, it was “a year of transformation in a market environment heavily influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Under these “challenging” conditions, you have loud Annual Report 2020 (PDF, 972 KB) “in parallel with the consistent continuation of the development of the new brand and the focus on our own sales channels, the portfolio of insurance contracts in motor insurance was almost completely converted to the new product range using the European direct platform”.
This is how the HDI explains the high losses
At HDI, sales only increased in 2018, which the Hanoverians attribute to “the successful expansion of direct sales and the higher average contribution”. The shrinkage rates of up to five percent in the previous years will be compensated by restructuring measures and the “planned” transfer of the large fleet business to the company HDI Global SE (Insurance Journal February 11, 2019).
In 2019, a noticeably lower level of new business was generated due to a “profitability-oriented underwriting policy”, which led to premium losses. The double-digit minus in the last year of the observation period was loud Annual Report 2020 (PDF, 878 KB) “driven by pandemic-related effects, the expiry of a cooperation model and inventory losses from the 2019/2020 turn-of-the-year business”.
The measures were also reflected in the underwriting. The combined claims/expenses ratio has recently been below the 100 percent mark six times in a row. In 2020, at 83.6 percent, the fifth best value in the industry was recorded (February 15, 2022). For comparison: in 2013 it was still almost 109 percent, which corresponded to the second highest value among the industry giants (December 16, 2014).
DA Direkt back on course for growth
At DA Direkt, the contributions initially fell four times in a row – at the top by more than ten percent. As a background for the declining development, the provider in the Annual Report 2019 (PDF, 1.1 MB) the “consistent maintenance of a risk-adequate and result-oriented pricing and underwriting policy”.
This was also the case in 2020, but the company returned to the growth path. “With an overall increase in average premiums in portfolio, our gross premiums written increased by 1.9 percent in 2020 […]
The premium growth achieved was below the plan ambition. Growth was slowed down by the lockdown in spring 2020 and the associated restrictions on public life Annual Report 2020 (PDF, 1.2MB). After the end of the lockdown, the development of new business during the year recovered again. However, this was not enough to make up for the failure to plan that had been recorded up to that point.
Further study details and reference
At Garanta, the initially high rate of contraction continued to decrease and was even converted into minimal gains in 2019. Most recently, however, a slight loss was recorded again at minus 0.6 percent.
After falling premium losses, the insurer recently returned to growth. The company’s combined ratio has consistently been below 100 percent for the past six years. In 2019, 92 percent was the third-best value among the 50 providers listed in the industry monitor (January 18, 2021).
The “Industry Monitor 2015-2020: Motor Insurance” contains numerous other key figures on the insurance branch. For the approximately 200-page version of the car (liability, other and total) 1,350.65 euros are due including VAT. It can be ordered from Maik Entrich by email or by phone on 0341 24659262.
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