LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish property and casualty insurer FBD Holdings PLC on Monday said policy volumes have declined in 2015 to date and said the claims settlement environment remains challenging, leading it to maintain its view that the Irish insurance industry will be loss-making in 2015 and 2016.
FBD said policy volumes in 2015 to date are down 9.2% year-on-year, offset by average rate increases of 9.1% as the group focuses on profitability rather than volume growth. The company said it is focusing on its farm and direct business customers and said rates are starting to firm for car and business insurance lines.
The group said the claims settlement environment remains tough, though in line in the second half so far. It added it has seen an improvement in claims frequency, despite higher levels of activity in the Irish economy, though better attritional claims rates have been offset by higher large claims in the second half.
FBD said the insurance market in Ireland has continued to grow, but profitability remains challenging and it expects the wider industry to be loss-making in both 2015 and 2016. It remains of the view that rates in the market have not increased sufficiently to offset the deterioration in the claims environment.
Shares in FBD were untraded on Monday, having last traded at EUR6.90.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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