Belfius Insurance posted a net profit of €212 million last year, slightly less than in 2021 (€219 million), but a “solid” performance given the market, the bank insurer announced on Wednesday at a press conference.
In terms of non-life insurance, 2022 was a rather “complex” year, as the business had to deal with a slowdown in the car market – which had an impact on car insurance production – but also with the forces of nature and high inflation, which resulted in higher payouts on claims.
Several storms hit Belgium in particular. “The amount of damage reached a total of €50.6 million, 95% of which has already been paid out to the affected customers,” the company noted proudly.
Against this backdrop, it can be said that the commercial dynamics held up well, with non-life premium income at the group level reaching €805 million (+4.7%), Belfius noted.
Income from insurance activities up by 10%
The bancassurance channel posted the strongest growth (+8.5%).
The group’s local network of insurance agents, DVV, and Corona Direct, it’s direct online insurance arm, also continued their regular growth, climbing respectively by 3.6% and 4%.
Life production, for its part, benefited from the rise in interest rates. At the end of 2022, it topped €2.2 billion, a 7.6% increase compared to the end of 2021. This was due , in particular, to an improvement in the performance of Branch 21 insurance (life insurance with a guaranteed return ). New insurance policies increased by 48.7% in 2022, fulfilling their role as safe havens in a complicated stock market year.
Life reserves, however, showed a 3.8% drop to €13.8 billion. This was mainly due to the negative market effect on the reserves of Branch 23 products (life insurance associated with an investment).
In the end, the income from insurance activities went up by 10%, amounting to €564 million, “while the dividend amounts to €126 million, which represents 1/3 of the total dividend paid by Belfius to the Belgian state,” Frederic Van der Schueren,” CEO of Belfius Insurance, disclosed.
