European insurers had €9.9 trillion of assets under management in 2014, according to Insurance Europe, although Solvency II will exaggerate the risk that insurers’ long-term investments present.
This will make it unnecessarily expensive for insurers to continue making these investments, limiting their ability to continue delivering such a significant contribution to society, said the insurance and reinsurance association.
Michaela Koller, director general of Insurance Europe, commented: “While it is encouraging that these investments have continued to grow, policymakers need to ensure that regulatory capital charges are commensurate with the actual risk that these investments pose.”
“We hope that this issue will be addressed as part of the EU investment plan to enable our industry to continue playing an increasingly important role in underpinning growth in Europe.”
The figures, published in the association’s annual key facts publication, also revealed that the volume of claims and benefits paid out by Europe’s insurers in 2014 was €945 billion.
Life benefits in 2014 came to €630 billion while the volume of non-life claims was €314 billion.
Koller added: “In 2014 Europe’s insurers paid out benefits and claims equal to approximately €2.6 billion every single day, illustrating another valuable contribution which they make to our society.”
