Insurance sector almost doubles profits

Luxembourg's insurance industry kept pace with the ballooning banking sector making profits of €2.33 billion in 2021, almost double the 2020 levels, regulator CAA said on Wednesday.

Profits grew in all areas of the insurance sector, with non-life insurance almost tripling compared to last year, the Commissariat aux Assurances said in its annual report.

The industry also took in 21% more premiums, racking up €57 billion, with life insurance premiums making up just under half of that, the CAA said.

The cumulative balance sheet of the insurance sector in Luxembourg stood at €339 billion at the end of last year, up from €312 billion the year before and almost double of what it was a decade ago.

The industry is one of the pillars of Luxembourg's economy as it contributed 5% of all corporate tax revenues in 2020, the finance ministry's latest figures showed. Last year, it paid just shy of €400 million in taxes, employing over 13,000 people, the CAA said.

But the outlook for the sector is gloomy, with the war in Ukraine casting a shadow over the industry, the report said.

In 2021, 280 companies worked in Luxembourg's insurance sector, six fewer than the year before. 

"The Luxembourg insurance sector has continued to develop well over the last year, and the financial centre has further strengthened its role as a pan-European centre," former Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said earlier this year.

The Luxembourg Times has a new mobile app, download here! Get the Luxembourg Times delivered to your inbox twice a day. Sign up for your free newsletters here.