Operational result increased by € 165 million due to higher insurance service
result at Non-Life, improved investment results and growth in interest margin at Retirement Services

Bianca Tetteroo, Chair of Achmea’s Executive Board: “Today we present the results over the first half of 2023 and show strong growth in both premium income and result. Financial markets were less volatile than in 2022, which led to an improvement in the return on our investments. The social and economic context in which we operate nevertheless remains dynamic and uncertain, partly because of the high rate of inflation and increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions. We have recently seen many examples of this in Europe. There are also challenges in the field of healthcare, pensions and the housing market that we are working on based on our purpose 'Sustainable Living Together'. Together with healthcare providers and local governments, we are working to further improve regional healthcare on the basis of the Integral Care Agreement (“Integraal Zorgakkoord”). Extremely important, in this way we keep healthcare accessible and affordable. By building more lifetime homes, we respond to the changing housing needs as a result of an ageing society. This also relieves some of the burden on the healthcare system. And on 1 July, the Future Pensions Act came into force. Together with our customers, we started with the implementation.

Increase in operational result

The operational result over the first six months is € 405 million. This is € 165 million (+69%) higher than last year. The operational result at Non-Life increased by € 61 million. The total cost of claims was lower than last year as the first six months of 2023 saw no major natural catastrophy events in the Netherlands, in contrast to February’s storm in 2022. However, we do see a substantial growth in the number of claims due to increased traffic intensity. The cost of repairing damage is also increasing as a result of inflation. The combined ratio remains strong at 91.3%. The operational result of the Health business improved by € 67 million. The result of Retirement Services improved to € 10 million. Interest income improved at Achmea Bank, which forms part of Retirement Services. Mortgage margins increased and the mortgage portfolio grew in the first six months. Underlying trends at Pension & Life are in line with our expectations. The operational result decreased to € 134 million, partly due to the higher indexation on pension contracts from the service book. The operational result at International improved versus last year with € 34 million and, supported by further premium growth, came out at break-even. Finally, there was also an improvement in the operational result on our reinsurance activities of € 37 million owing to the absence of large calamities in the first six months.

Revenue growth

Premiums grew by € 1.5 billion (+8%) to € 19.9 billion. Premiums at Non-Life increased by 4%, mainly due to growth in the commercial segment. At Health, premiums increased by 7% due to higher premiums and a higher equalisation fund contribution. At International, there was the strongest premium growth (+41%) as a result of inflation and customer growth. At Retirement Services, assets under management increased by 6% to € 206 billion driven by inflow of new clients and market value developments. Achmea Bank's mortgage volume grew by € 1 billion. In light of our growth strategy on mortgages, we announced a partnership with Munt Hypotheken in April. We expect to provide approximately € 1.5 billion in additional mortgages with Munt over the next three years. A concerning development is that fewer and fewer people take out term life insurance when initiating or renewing a mortgage. In the longer term, this can lead to distressing situations.

High customer satisfaction and focus on efficiency 

The NPS scores for our brands remain high. Customers value our (digital) services in which we continue to invest. This includes investment in a new IT platform that provides a solid basis for transitioning to the new pension system together with our customers.

Expenses increased significantly by 11% compared to last year. On the one hand this was caused by inflation and business growth. On the other hand, there are strategic investments, higher personnel costs and costs to comply with legislation. Also in the past six months we invested in our Customer Due Diligence programme. On the back of the increasing expenses a focus on efficiency and cost control remains key.

Solvency robust

The solvency ratio stood at 195% at the end of June. This is still robust, yet lower than it was six months ago (year-end 2022: 209%). The decrease is caused by a sharp increase in healthcare costs and a higher net retention on our own reinsurance. 
Our reinsurance cover was renewed as of 1 July this year. We are seeing higher premiums and altered terms and conditions, partly in response to the global increase in climate-related claims and inflation. This does not only impact the net retention in our reinsurance cover but also has an impact on the cost of our insurance products.

Working together on sustainability

At Achmea we look at three aspects when it comes to climate change: prevention, adaptation and insurability. For these three aspects we work on solutions together with our customers, the Dutch Association of Insurers (“Verbond van Verzekeraars”) and the government. Our employees made their own pleasant contribution to sustainability in the first six months of the year. Since 1 January 2023, all our employees have a climate budget of € 2,500 for making their own living environment more sustainable. More than half of the 12,000 Achmea employees in the Netherlands already used this budget in the first half of this year. We are also making it easier for our customers to improve the sustainability of their homes. From May this year, for example, Centraal Beheer customers receive a discount on their mortgage rate for a green loan component used for making their home more sustainable. At group level, in February Achmea invested € 55 million in two wind farms via the newly-launched Climate Infrastructure Fund.

Realising sufficient lifetime homes

In June, we presented the strategic ambitions and new name of Achmea Real Estate. We have solid growth plans and the development of lifetime homes plays a key role in this ambition. The ageing population means that in the long term the Netherlands requires an additional 450,000 homes of this type. Our goal is for 10% of these to be achieved by Achmea. 

Thank you to our customers, partners and employees

We succeeded in moving in the right direction in the first six months of the year and did so together with our customers, partners and employees who I want to thank for their contribution and trust in Achmea."

Group results

Bianca Tetteroo, Chair of the Executive Board:

Today we present the results over the first half of 2022. A period in which a lot happened in the world around us. The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost six months and a solution is not expected any time soon. The economic conditions are challenging. The first half of the year there was high inflation, a rapid rise in interest rates on the capital markets and falling share prices. In addition, the pressure in the healthcare sector remains high due to Covid-19 catch-up care, the labour market is tight, and we increasingly face extreme weather conditions. All these circumstances also had an effect on our business operations and financial results in the first half of the year. In addition, further development of the financial markets, inflation and interest rates provide uncertainty for our financial results in the second half of the year. 
 

Results first half year 

The result for the first half of 2022 is €115 million. This is lower than the result for the same period last year (€362 million). Investment income is €170 million lower than in the first half of 2021 due to the development of the financial markets. In addition, there is a lower result on our health insurance business, partly due to higher healthcare costs as care is fully restarted and because there is no longer an additional contribution from the Covid-19 catastrophe scheme. 

The underlying insurance result, on the other hand, is at a good level and is supported by broad portfolio growth, again showing commercial growth in Health, Non-Life, Retirement Services and our International activities. As a result, our premium income grew by more than €1 billion. 

Portfolio growth, combined with lower operating expenses and a good underwriting result, helped us to absorb more than €100 million in claims (after reinsurance) from the February storms and further improved the combined ratio of our Property & Casualty business to 92.0%. 

Pension & Life experienced a significantly lower investment result due to the effects of increased interest rates and lower share prices. In line with our strategy, no new insurance contracts are concluded in our pension portfolios and therefore the decrease in premium income is the result of the run-off of the portfolio. Cost reduction initiatives and earlier IT investments have resulted in cost reductions in line with our targets and decline of the portfolio. 

In Retirement Services there is a lower result. Especially Achmea Bank reported a lower result due to rising interest rates, which had a negative impact on the interest margin and a lower valuation of part of the mortgage portfolio. Income of Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance, Achmea Investment Management and Achmea Pension Services increased by €14 million, among others due to new pension fund clients and price development of real estate. Total assets under management at Achmea Investment Management and Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance declined to €201 billion, despite the addition of several new pension funds, due to lower valuations as a result of increased interest and development of the financial markets. 

At International, strong premium growth of 14% was realised. Despite this growth, the result decreased. In Greece and Slovakia, the result is lower due to higher claims through calamities and a lower contribution to health care. In addition, at Group level, we have made an impairment of the remaining intangible assets for our activities in Turkey given the economic developments and hyperinflation. 
 

Strong position 

We are well on our way to realising our strategy ‘The Sum of Us’. Our solid capital position gives us room for continuous investment in growth and customer service, and in helping to solve societal issues. To achieve our goals, we operate as one Achmea. We will strengthen the synergies within the company, optimise our balance sheet, continue to invest in the development of our committed employees, and achieve economies of scale in the areas of data and technology, innovative solutions and indirect costs. 

In addition to growth opportunities in Health and Non-Life, we see plenty of opportunities in Retirement Services. In early May, we announced the acquisition of ABN AMRO's premium pension institution. In doing so, we capitalise on the opportunities offered by the new pension agreement and to strengthen our position in the employer market with our Retirement Services. We support our institutional clients in the transition to the new pension system with both asset management solutions and pension services. With new, innovative products and solutions, we continue to improve services to our millions of clients. In addition, we are further expanding our international activities with a focus on organic growth in the direct distribution channels, additional targeted acquisitions and the roll-out of InShared in Germany. 

Our position to realise our strategic ambitions is and will remain as strong as ever. Despite market developments, the Group's solvency remains robust at 200%. In terms of market position and customer satisfaction, we remain in the top tier, and we are also well regarded as an employer in various surveys. Employees and customers value our initiatives to make ourselves and society more sustainable. 
 

Achmea stands for Sustainable Living Together 

Together with our customers, Vereniging Achmea, Rabobank and other strategic partners, we work on solutions to societal challenges in the areas of health, living and working, mobility and income for today and tomorrow. This is how we create sustainable value for customers, employees, the company and society. We are doing this, for example, in the housing market by developing life-proof housing, such as the large De Nieuwe Sint Jacob residential complex in Amsterdam, which we opened in April. In twenty years' time, there will be twice as many people in the Netherlands aged 75 or over. To continue to meet the need for care and housing, customisation is a must. This requires about 500,000 new life-course resistant homes. Making homes life-course resistant can reduce the pressure on (informal) care and improve the flow on the housing market. From our expertise in real estate, health care and pensions, we work together with partners to find solutions. 

Achmea has strong climate ambitions. We are on our way to a climate neutral business in 2030, climate neutral investments in 2040 and climate neutral products and services in 2050. The gross CO2 footprint of our business operations in the first half of 2022 amounts to 10,7 kton and is considerably lower than the target. In the first half year, Achmea improved its score on the Eerlijke Verzekeringswijzer (“Fair Insurance Guide”) to 7.4 and thus maintained its top-3 position. In the area of biodiversity, we are committed to investing in the environment in and around our premises, such as the Apeldoorn campus, and Achmea Investment Management actively promotes the preservation and improvement of biodiversity through its own investment funds. 
 

Many thanks to our customers and employees 

Although Covid-19 is unfortunately not yet behind us, we were fortunately able to go to the office more often in the past six months. It gives energy to meet each other more often in person again. 

I am proud of all our employees for all their efforts in the past period. I am particularly proud of my colleagues who have put in a lot of extra hours in order to settle the more than 80,000 storm damage claims as quickly as possible. Of course, I would also like to thank our customers for their understanding when it sometimes took a bit longer to settle these claims and for their continued trust in our services.

Bianca Tetteroo, Chair of the Executive Board:

“As the new CEO I present the results for the first time. We are well on the way with the realisation of the strategy ‘The Sum of Us’. The operational result increased to €363 million compared to €127 million in the first half year of 2020. A good start, but uncertainties remain in the second half of the year.

The increase in the result in the Netherlands was primarily driven by the results at Pension & Life, Health and Non-Life. The improved result at Pension & Life is mainly thanks to higher investment results due to the positive developments on the financial markets. Lower medical expenses and the additional Covid-19-related government contribution from the statutory catastrophe scheme largely account for the higher result on our health business. In line with the past few years, the positive result at health will be added to the reserves and used to control future premium increases and further improve the quality of healthcare in the future. The impact of setting the health insurance premiums for 2022 will be included in the second half of this year. The operational result at Non-Life increased in the first six months of 2021. The combined ratio climbed to 95.8% due to a higher cost of claims caused by snowstorm Darcy and additional provisions for personal injury claims from previous years. These developments are offset by higher investment results. The solvency ratio of the Group increased to 211%, making us a solid party for customers and partners.

The past few months were long dominated by a sense of a return to ‘normal’. Towards the end of the first half year however, uncertainty  about Covid-19 again reared its head for many people as a result of the growing number of new cases. Despite this recent development in the number of infections, the number of Covid-19-related hospital admissions is currently under control, meaning there is again greater capacity for regular and catch-up care. We are actively involved in accelerating this catch-up care, for example via waiting list mediation. In the Non-Life market in the Netherlands as well we see the effects of a movement back to normal traffic volumes, while abroad there are important differences between the countries in which we are active.

In addition to the impact of Covid-19, we also noted an increase in weather-related claims in the past six months, including the snowstorms earlier this year and the floods in Limburg and elsewhere in the Netherlands in mid-July. We were immediately on the spot to assist our customers and take action to resolve the damage with the aim for our customers to resume their everyday lives as soon as possible. We were even able to help those customers who were not covered for their damage by offering them support. Settling claims arising from flood damage will take quite some time. This means that the exact impact of the floods on our results will only be fully known in the second half of this year.

Via our strategy ‘The Sum of Us’ we are putting the combined strength of our Group to use. We do this through more intensive collaboration between business lines and with our partners. This enables us to employ for example economies of scale and to consolidate knowledge within the Group. We further expand our leading position in mobile and online services via the application of chatbots, speak-to-text and open platform technology. This is applied in all brands through which we use our benefits of scale. Our customers are already profiting from this and we can see this reflected in our high customer ratings and growth in premium volume. Moreover, joining forces is leading to new innovations, insights and answers to a wide variety of social problems. A great example of this joining forces is the collective call from Zilveren Kruis and SAREF for ‘A healthy home for all senior citizens’, which aims for half a million new homes that can be used through the life cycle.

Despite the lower prices of fixed-income securities due to the increase in interest rates, the assets under management at Retirement Services remained stable, with underlying growth in terms of customers in both asset management and pension administration. Non- Life and International also saw premium growth thanks to strong brands, distribution and high customer ratings. Being ranked first as an insurer with the best reputation in the Management Team Top 500 is important to expanding our partnerships but also to us as an employer. Along with the fact that we are also seen as a progressive employer, this means we are successful at attracting and retaining talented employees.

We have prioritised three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ‘good health and well-being’, ‘sustainable cities and communities’ and ‘climate action’. These form a material component of our products and services with a view to helping our customers protect themselves against climate change. We are on course to make our own business operations carbon neutral by 2030. By using solar panels and geothermal heat, we are reducing the carbon footprint of our offices. The Achmea Innovation Fund assists sustainable companies in their growth paths. For instance, we recently acquired a stake in Onto, one of Europe’s biggest platforms for sharing electric vehicles, and in Landlife, a tech-driven reforestation company that uses a scalable method to plant trees. Sustainability is also increasingly leading in our investment policy. We are reducing our participations in polluting industries and via engaged shareholdership make our voice heard at shareholder meetings. In asset management we have a distinctive profile because of our focus on sustainability.

From our cooperative DNA, Achmea continues to focus on the ambition to create sustainable value for clients and therefore also for society. Based on our long term focus we continue to invest undiminished in the sustainable development of our company. The past year we again took important steps with our strategy. I have a lot of confidence in this movement and in our employees who are still communicating with our customers while largely working from home and implement large projects.”

Willem van Duin, Chairman of Achmea’s Executive Board

“Covid-19 has had an enormous impact on society and on the lives of many people in the Netherlands. Good health is a precious commodity and the spread of the virus poses a threat to it. In addition to worrying about their health, many people in the Netherlands are affected by concerns relating to their income, social distancing and isolation. As an insurer with a cooperative identity, we have set to work to restrict the impact of Covid-19 on society.

Our company is deeply rooted in society and this motivates us to become a trend-setter in this respect. Organising solidarity between customers and uniting various interests in healthcare are objectives aligned with Achmea’s cooperative identity. This is one way we give substance to our role in society. Together with other institutional investors around the world, for instance, we urged thep harmaceutical industry to collaborate on the hunt for a vaccine or drugs to treat Covid-19. In the Netherlands, health insurer ZilverenKruis and its peers worked together on schemes to guarantee continuity of healthcare services for hospitals and other healthcare providers. We offered colleagues with a background in healthcare the opportunity of helping out in healthcare services while retaining their salaries. As a major travel insurer we recognised the impact on our customers as well and not only did we reimburse cancellations,we also played an active role in repatriating customers stranded abroad. In our capacity as an employer, we enabled all of our 14,000 employees to work problem-free from home and continue serving our customers properly, thereby ensuring continuity of our businessoperations. In doing so we profited greatly from our considerable investment in IT and digital customer services.

During our new strategic period that lasts until 2025 and is called ‘The Sum of Us’ we will invest further in the combined strength of our group. The wide-reaching digitisation of our services will continue. Our mobile and online services mean that we can offer our customers an even better service. This has been rewarded with, among other things, substantial inflow of customers over the reporting period, including at our international entities. Our brands Centraal Beheer, Interpolis, FBTO and InShared welcomed more customers than ever before at this time of year. Moreover, we have further implemented our strategy by taking significant additional stepstowards bundling our mortgage activities and acquiring InAdmin RiskCo, allowing us to make major headway on our ambition to become the trend-setting digital pension provider in the Netherlands.

Although we have made sound strategic progress in the past six months, Covid-19 has had an adverse impact in financial terms. Our operational result decreased to €127 million due to the negative trends on the financial markets and the impact of Covid-19 on our health insurance business. Yet the sound underlying structural growth of our company meant that the underwriting results remained strong and stable. Our gross written premiums increased to €17,675 million and our financial buffers are solid.

The further course and impact of Covid-19 remain uncertain and other challenges may also pose a threat to everyone’s wellbeing. Climate change is high on this list. Our mission is, and will continue to be, to contribute to a healthy, safe and future-proof society. Our strategy, ‘The Sum of Us’, focuses entirely on achieving these aims and on overcoming all of today’s uncertainties as well as many other challenges. As part of this, we are well aware that we need to continue seeking internal and external partnerships with customers and partners in order to achieve these objectives. Ever since our foundation as a cooperative company, this has formed the basis for all ouractions and gives us every confidence that we can continue to add value for our customers and society even in such challenging times.”

• Pension & Life result increased due to improved technical and investment results

• Operational result current underwriting year Health improved

• Growth Achmea Investment Management to €142 billion Assets under Management

• Solid capital position with a solvency level of 195%

• Achmea launches innovation fund with an initial size of €100 million

Willem van Duin, Chairman of Achmea’s Executive Board:
“2019 is the final year of our strategic planning period ‘Delivering Together’. We have taken a good next step in the first half of this year on realising our strategic and financial targets.

From our cooperative background we commit to a healthy, safe and future-proof society. Over the past few months, we have again made good progress. Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance became the first Dutch asset manager to sign up to the ‘Green Deal Healthcare’ and through our healthcare real estate we focus on a safe and sustainable living environment. Zilveren Kruis encourages a healthy lifestyle and is improving patient care by organising an increasing amount of care at home, for patients with heart conditions, COPD or those requiring chemotherapy or immunotherapy. These eHealth solutions lead to fewer hospital admissions as well as lower healthcare expenses. Interpolis and Rabobank offer the ‘Is your home still suitable?’ test to create awareness about independent living when approaching the retirement age and help come up with solutions for now and later. All these initiatives allow us to play a broad and valuable role in the lives of our customers, one that goes beyond just offering insurance. Sustainability is a key part of this and the three international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are anchored at the heart of our strategy. We recently gave our commitment on the Climate Agreement and, by doing so, demonstrate our duty to take responsibility in tackling the climate change.

Our asset manager Achmea Investment Management is distinctive and successful with socially responsible investment services. In the first half of 2019 these services are implemented for pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering. Assets under Management (AuM) increased to €142 billion and as of 1 January 2020, AuM will increase further due to pensioenfonds Vervoer that selected Achmea Investment Management as overall manager.

As an insurance company, we traditionally provide assistance in the event of setbacks or illness and offer our customers help with prevention and advice. This enables us to prevent a great deal of suffering or loss. Yet the world is changing fast and our customers’ requirements are changing accordingly. We are responding to those changing needs by creating innovative services on top of our insurance policies. For instance, Centraal Beheer offers assistance with odd jobs (KlusHulp), legal problems (Juridische Hulp) and vehicle breakdowns (PechHulp), no subscription necessary. Interpolis is improving traffic safety via AutoModus and WegWijsVR, by prevention of, amongst other things, mobile phone-induced driver distraction. By incentivising the installation of green roofs, Interpolis is also contributing to reducing the nuisance and damage caused by the increasingly high levels of rainfall.

We will continue to develop appealing, innovative services which, in addition to having a major social impact, also add value for Achmea. This is why we will soon launch the Achmea Innovation Fund, which from 1 October 2019 will be able to issue growth capital to companies active in the domains of health, mobility, residential and financial solutions for now, tomorrow and later. The fund will focus on promising initiatives that match our strategic goals, based on up-and-coming technology in the Fintech and Insurtech industries. The ambition is for the fund to grow to an initial size of €100 million.

We have also performed well financially. Over the first half of 2019, we achieved an increase in the operational result to €284 million and an increase in the net profit to €234 million. Gross earned premiums are up slightly, to €17.6 billion, and expenses have decreased. With this cost reduction we have managed to meet our expense reduction target set at the end of 2016 of €200 million. Our focus will of course continue to be on making our business operations as efficient as possible. In doing so, we manage to keep premiums competitive for our customers and achieve results which enables us to reinvest in the best products and services. Our solvency ratio is robust. This means that our customers can rely on our sound financial position, as ought to be expected of an insurer with a cooperative identity.”

Willem van Duin, Chairman of the Executive Board:

“Achmea is well on track to achieve its ambitions in the period up to 2020. In order to further improve our services to our customers we are investing in innovation and continue to evolve into a leading financial services provider, one which will remain relevant to its customers and to society in the future as well.

The results over the first half of this year were strongly affected by the claims arising from two severe storms that passed over the Netherlands in January. The storms caused a great deal of distress and damage to our customers, who we were able to provide with good assistance. The total claims resulting from these storms amounted to €116 million. Adjusted for these costs, our operational result increased over the first half of this year. Our result improved due to higher premiums, further cost reductions and higher investment returns. Our solvency ratio is robust and increased to 191%.

For our retail property & casualty insurance, we saw an increase in both the number of customers and the amount of premiums. This is partly due to new services and the good online customer service by Centraal Beheer, Interpolis and FBTO. These services are also highly rated by our customers. Illustrations of this are Centraal Beheer being awarded the title of most customer-friendly insurer and FBTO obtaining the highest score for the customer-oriented insurance quality seal. Thanks to a strategic partnership with Google, Centraal Beheer is the first Dutch insurer to be included in Google Assistant, which uses innovative speech technology in services for customers.

Premiums for basic health insurance are still offered below cost price. In spite of this, the result from our health insurance activities has increased due to a lower use of healthcare services than expected for both basic and supplementary health insurance and because we have succeeded in further reducing our operational expenses while maintaining the high standard of service. The integration of De Friesland Zorgverzekeraar and Zilveren Kruis is already leading to lower costs for our customers. All these measures are contributing to keeping healthcare expenditure at manageable levels in the Netherlands.

Our revised pension strategy further develops with the increase of new customers. The market highly appreciates the overall range of solutions offered by Centraal Beheer General Pension Fund (Centraal Beheer GPF). Internationally we are mainly growing through our services offered via digital channels. In Canada we are preparing the launch of an online insurance company via the Onlia brand, together with Fairfax. This further expands the innovative range of property & casualty insurance products, capitalizing on the InShared platform and Achmea’s experience in online direct distribution.

We continue to evolve from an insurer into an all-round financial services provider. Smart use of data and digitisation allows us to serve our customers in many different areas. Our services contribute to a healty, safe and future proof society. Zilveren Kruis, for example, conducted a campaign in the corporate market to promote a healthy organisational culture. With BlueLabel we launched the world’s first water vulnerability scan on the market. Interpolis' ThuisWacht helps keep people’s homes safe in their absence, and through Centraal Beheer GPF, pension scheme members are given full insight into their financial future. With the objective of reducing traffic accidents by 25% by 2020, Interpolis has intensified its campaign against the use of mobile phones while driving. Furthermore, through our investment policy we aim to contribute to a more sustainable society: Achmea ranks a good third place in the 2018 Ethical Insurance Guide and has the ambition to further improve the ranking.

Notwithstanding the sound progress made over the first half of this year, continued focus on realising our ambitions and further improving our result remains important. After all, insurance is inherently linked to dealing with uncertainties. One recent example being the widespread damage caused by the January storms. We are well prepared for such situations and will continue to implement our strategy towards 2020, which enables us to create sufficient future capacity to continue investing in improving our services to our customers. A continuous focus on cost reductions is a significant part of this. Our expectation is that the execution of our plans will lead to a further improvement in our result.”

Willem van Duin, Chairman of the Executive Board:

Achmea started the year well, with the positive contribution from previously-implemented improvement measures becoming visible.Consequently, the operational result over the first six months of this year increased to €223 million, while last year a negative result was reported in particular due to the hailcalamity. Even when adjusted for the claims arising from last year’s severe weather conditions, the result over this half year was substantially higher. We have achieved structural cost reductions of 8% while increasing higher gross written premiums in our core activities health and non-life insurance. The continued high level of appreciation from our customers and the increase in our result are a big compliment to all our colleagues.

Centraal Beheer, Interpolis and FBTO experienced further growth in number of customers with non-life insurance at lower expenses. The sound performance is in spite of a higher cost of personal injury claims. The use of smartphones and other devices while in traffic is leading to a substantial increase in the risk of serious accidents. The trend in increasing frequency of new personal injury claims is therefore continuing. Our close commercial and strategic partnership with Rabobank is performing well. We have completely renewed the range of services sold via our partner Rabobank. We have welcomed nearly 20,000 new customers to our health insurance business. Over the past few years, health insurers have kept premium increases low by allocating funds from capital. This is of course not a sustainable situation. Achmea aims to set premiums at cost price in order to prevent large premium increases for our policyholders.

Our Retirement Services strategy is developing well. The inflow of new customers into the Centraal Beheer APF contributed €1 billion to the increase to €117 billion of assets under management at Achmea Investment Management. At our Pension and Life service organisation, a further sharp decrease in operational costs was achieved while retaining the high level of service provided to our customers. Achmea’s digital competencies are also being used internationally: we are leading the way with non-life and health insurance products distributed online and via banking distribution. Our international activities show continued growth in our market share, with premium growth of 8% in local currency. We expect to put to use our knowledge of online insurance products together with a partner in Canada shortly.

Our financial position remains strong, with an increase in our solvency ratio to 185%. Moreover, we have reduced the interest rate sensitivity of our solvency ratio by applying a different hedging policy.

The results over the first six months of this year give us confidence that we are on the right track for achieving our objectives in the long term. It is, however, too soon to assume that these financial results will continue for the remainder of the year. As a leader in mobile and online services, many of our insurance companies are trendsetters in the insurance sector. Being relevant is the basic principle here. We therefore continue to invest a great deal in innovation. We consequently expect to further improve our result, increase customer satisfaction further and retain our strong financial position.