Insurance premium freeze: Axa France boss denounces “scandalous blackmail”

“It is scandalous to have to undergo such blackmail”, rebelled Jacques de Peretti, CEO of Axa France, in an interview with Le Parisien, published Saturday evening on the newspaper’s website.

“I had on the phone last Monday all of my European colleagues and such blackmail has never been practiced in any country, while the situation with regard to insurance and restaurant owners is the same”, continued the leader. .

Bruno Le Maire asked Tuesday for the freezing of insurance premiums for the hotel and catering sector, failing which the government will support a Senate amendment asking for an exceptional contribution from insurers.

An amendment tabled in recent days in the Senate aims to introduce an exceptional contribution of 2% on premiums paid for damage insurance contracts. This would represent, according to the French Insurance Federation, a charge of “1.2 billion” euros for the sector.

“This tax would be the worst thing for the recovery because we could not assume such a burden alone, and we would have to defer it to the contributions of our policyholders, themselves already heavily taxed”, warned Mr. . of Peretti.

Regarding the premium freeze for professionals in the hotel and catering industry, “this is an avenue that we are watching closely. (…) We all have an interest in finding a solution and all of us coming out on top of this conflict, “continued Mr. de Peretti, emphasizing the” openness “of the companies.

Since March, the insurance sector has deployed various measures to support the economy, ranging from a contribution of 400 million euros to the public fund to support SMEs to an investment program of more of a billion euros, through various initiatives taken individually by the companies.

In total, these individual and collective measures represent 3.8 billion euros in commitments.

But insurers have been accused since the start of the health crisis of not doing enough and dozens of disputes between restaurants and insurers over coverage of operating losses, which are rarely covered, have been taken to court.

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