LINZ / UPPER AUSTRIA. The corona pandemic shaped 2020 in every way. Nevertheless, the boards of directors of the Upper Austrian Insurance Company draw a positive conclusion about the insurance year that is coming to an end. At the turn of the year, Josef Stockinger resigned from his position as General Manager after ten years.
Because of the contact restrictions, the premium growth was 0.1 percent below expectations. The first lockdown in particular resulted in less damage to road traffic. On the other hand, the damage payments for storms and fires increased. Overall, the Upper Austrian insurance company increased its premiums by 1.5 percent to slightly more than 460 million euros after 453 million euros in the previous year. The expected EGT amounts to 30.1 million euros.
2021/2022 will be difficult years
The good underwriting technique and the premium growth achieved in property-casualty insurance at the same time brings an expected result from ordinary business activities (EGT) of EUR 30.1 million for Oberösterreichische Versicherung compared with EUR 26.6 million in 2019. “This good result helps us to cushion the difficult situation to be expected in 2021/22. Premium losses after bankruptcies and a drop in sales-related premiums will be a fact in the next two years. In contrast to other areas of the economy, the financial effects of the corona pandemic in the insurance industry will not materialize until the following years, ”said General Director Josef Stockinger, summarizing the challenging framework conditions.
Nagl follows Stockinger
At the turn of the year Josef Stockinger said goodbye after ten years as General Director of the Upper Austrian Insurance Company and passed the chairmanship of the board to Othmar Nagl. Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner took over the sales agendas in October. “I would like to thank our customers who have made us the strongest Austrian regional insurer through their trust. I am convinced that personal contact and direct customer access will continue to be the key to success for Oberösterreichische Versicherung in the future, ”said Stockinger.
“After moving into business, I wanted to prove that decent politicians can also run companies successfully. In the team with Othmar Nagl, that was successful for the Upper Austrian ”, the outgoing CEO finally draws a personal assessment.
New forms of communication through Corona
“Corona and contact restrictions show us how important electronic communication is for the insurance industry. During the lockdown, digital forms of communication quickly became standard and made a lot of things easier for us as a company as well as for our customers, ”reports Board Member Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner. Submitting an application by email proved to be particularly helpful. Last year, an average of almost 700 applications per month were submitted by e-mail, this number has doubled in the Corona year 2020. The front runner was April with more than 1,600 applications.
Electronic service offerings such as the customer portal or the no worries app are also booming: since their introduction in January 2020, 5,500 customers have already checked their insurance matters on their smartphones. 10 percent of policyholders are already registered in the customer portal.
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