Achmea records significantly increased operational result of €547 million
- Strong Non-Life result with a combined ratio of 95.0%
- Sustained good Pension & Life results
- Positive result current underwriting year for basic and supplementary health insurance
- Strong growth in Non-Life, Retirement Services and international activities; Assets under Management grew to €200 billion at the start of 2020
- Solvency ratio robust at 214%, partly supported by financial markets
- Business model expanded further with new propositions and services
Willem van Duin, Chairman of Achmea’s Executive Board
Achmea ended 2019 well with an increase of the operational result to €547 million and a solvency ratio that rose further to 214% after dividend payments. We have seen growth in both the number of customers and written premiums in property & casualty insurance, as well as a further increase in the result from our pension & life insurance activities. Our new pension services model, in which we offer a comprehensive package of asset management and banking services, is appreciated highly by our customers. The result over the 2019 underwriting year was positive for both basic and supplementary health insurance. However, the negative results on prior underwriting years caused a negative result on overall basic health insurance. As a group, at the start of 2020 we held over €200 billion in Assets under Management, and a growing number of customers place their trust in our investment method and advice on socially responsible investment.
We completed our strategic period ‘Delivering Together’ at the end of last year. As a leading player in mobile and online services, we will continue to digitise our business operations. We are investing substantial amounts in websites, portals, apps and other innovative ways of serving our customers. Even greater convenience and accessibility are the key words here. Moreover, in the past three-year planning period we cut our expenses by over €200 million, while customer ratings for our insurance, products and services remained as high as ever.
In addition to good insurance policies and advice on prevention, we are also offering more services. Sustainability and innovation are central to these. For instance, Centraal Beheer also offers solar panels and more general assistance in making homes more sustainable. And Interpolis is working hard to improve road safety via its ‘AutoModus’ app. Following a successful campaign to raise awareness among drivers, Interpolis is now focusing on young cyclists on the road via ‘PhoNo’. Health insurer Zilveren Kruis is focusing on bringing good health closer to everyone by organising more safe in-home care with the collaboration of healthcare providers and patients.
This year we kicked off a new strategic period entitled ‘The Sum of Us’. We plan to put the combined forces of our company to even better use. We will continue to invest in innovation, platforms for distribution, and further improvement of our services. We also want to actively enter into more partnerships with which we can offer customers innovative services. This way we remain relevant to our customers and society in a changing world. For the realisation of our strategic ambitions, earning a healthy return and keeping a close eye on expenses remain essential. These ambitions match our identity as insurer with a cooperative identity with an active role in society.”