HUK-Coburg CEO sees the car insurance industry in a dire situation | Börsen-Zeitung (2024)

We certainly underestimated the extent of inflation. The second issue is the increase in claim frequency. There are more accidents, and we also see destruction, for example, from extremely large hailstones, which we have not encountered to this extent before. Thirdly, the premium increases at the turn of 2022/2023 did not raise the average premiums as much as the industry or we as a company had thought.

The combined ratio is catastrophically bad, and the capital investment is not yet at the level we knew from earlier times. We obviously expect to straighten this out at some point. But at the moment, we are in a dire situation. That must be said openly.

The industry currently estimates the loss and expense ratio for the past year at 110%. In my estimation, it could be even worse. We expect 114 to 115% for HUK-Coburg. I cannot recall that we ever had this in the motor insurance segment, even though it includes 100 million euros for additional reserves for claims from previous years, which is about two percentage points.

Fundamentally, this is unpleasant. I am not satisfied with that. Now, every insurer can reduce losses for a few years by using reserves. We do not do that; we do not conceal anything. This is probably easier to bear as a mutual insurance association than in other legal forms.

It is understandable that they view the developments with concern. Not all insurers are equipped like HUK-Coburg. The fact that there may be players underestimating the burdens is also a concern for us.

If a new player with a small policy base brings in a lot of business with too low prices and perhaps also through the wrong distribution channel, that can be painful.

We are most certainly monitoring this closely.

The current situation cannot be compared to the shift from good to bad times that we saw in the mid to late 2000s.

In the last cycle, the profitability of motor insurers shifted due to intense competition initiated by individual providers. But because at the same time, payments to customers for damages decreased, insurers quickly emerged from the profitability low through premium increases when losses became too high. Today, however, the industry is lagging behind in adjusting its prices to meet the rising demand for compensation.

The tariff for the turn of 2023/2024 is significantly higher than the offer twelve months earlier. HUK-Coburg has also increased its premiums noticeably twice during 2023. It's not enjoyable for us, but we have to adapt to the new claims reality.

HUK-Coburg will end up with an average increase of about 5 to 6% in 2023. The market without HUK is likely to have increased by around 4%. We obviously uphold the brand promise to be the most affordable motor insurer. But unlike many competitors, motor insurance represents a large part of our overall business. Therefore, we are looking at it very closely.

We lost more than 100,000 customers at the turn of 2023/2024.

This is indeed a new experience that concerns our company and me. It hurts to see so many customers leave. We are used to being the winners at the turn of the year. Now, we are probably one of the significant losers and have lost market share.

We have a more price-sensitive clientele than many competitors. I also suspect that we have reacted more consistently to the new claims reality in the existing business than the rest of the industry.

In the current year, we will have gone a long way toward a combined ratio of a maximum of 100%. However, both the industry and we will report a significant red combined ratio for 2024 and possibly even for 2025. By 2026, HUK-Coburg should be below 100% again. My gut feeling tells me that the market may follow with a one-year delay.

Inflation remains very high. The hourly rate in car repair shops, which was 300 euros in the year before last, is now at 500 euros. And the automotive industry in Germany is unlikely to be rosy in 2024. It is unlikely that manufacturers, who have to invest in electromobility, will say: "Let's refrain from significantly raising spare part prices." Dealers suffer from declining new car sales and try to make their profit source, the workshop business, bubble up.

The turn of the year business already counts for 2024, so we start with a burden. It will be a real challenge to compensate for this during the year. Because, according to my expectations, there will be little new business in the market.

We had about 150,000 more motor insurance contracts at the end of December than twelve months earlier. This means a growth of about 1.1%. We assume that we have gained a slight market share.

Digital access routes are becoming more relevant. Our direct insurer HUK24 is at the forefront, having sold around 450,000 new motor insurance policies. HUK.de is also doing well; we have sold more than 100,000 motor insurance policies.

We benefited from the fact that the automotive industry had picked up by autumn. In addition, we experienced significant growth in electric scooters. New business has increased by 10% to 1.36 million vehicles.

Not at all. Growth will remain marginal. This is not just a phase of two or three years. We are entering a stagnation of vehicle stocks in Germany.

A planned major acquisition unfortunately did not work out.

Mobility remains a basic need for people. The car is important. But we must offer customers more touchpoints so that they choose HUK-Coburg's motor insurance. If an acquisition is not possible, stronger cooperation approaches are also conceivable.

We need to be relevant for the customer. Those insurers who no longer have direct contact with end customers are only suppliers and are subject to merciless cost competition. In addition: If it is correct that motor insurance no longer brings a strongly increasing volume, new business areas become more significant. We have to round off and complement.

We can talk about that again in two to three years. In any case, we are on a good path to bring the workshop chain a significantly six-digit number of additional customers over time. Despite a slightly delayed start, there were already around 90,000 customers by the end of 2023.

We did not quite reach the planned 10,000 sales last year. It might have been 7,000 to 8,000. We are just noticing that used car markets are changing. In general, with new business areas, we have to become much better at creating new offers from customer contacts and data.

It is developing positively in general. Unfortunately, it lost HDI as a cooperation partner. In addition to the second shareholder LVM Versicherung, WGV, Bayerische, and Signal Iduna are now also cooperation partners. Alexander Hund, the managing director of Onpier, is in good talks with a significant number of other insurers. It is increasingly understood that the platform offers customers additional services and thus strengthens the relevance of insurers.

The business for the turn of 2023/2024 has been well managed. But we were not good in the service division last year. We still do not perform in customer service as we should. The backlog in the claims and benefits area is too high.

Our customers had to wait for a response for more than two weeks in some cases. People today do not accept such long times anymore. We are currently working our way back to the range of two weeks. We have to work additional overtime in the major operational areas. This costs too much money.

We were surprised by the increase in claims; their quantity was significantly above our plans. Secondly, with mobile work and home office, we do not achieve the previous productivity values everywhere. The third point: Peaks of work to settle claims caused by hail and the like are becoming more intense.

We need to become more flexible. In times when suddenly there is 20% more work, capacity must be quickly ramped up.

Yes, I am not satisfied with the progress. In the end, we have to agree on such matters with employee representatives.

New business in other property insurance is at a record level. Legal protection insurance shows a significant increase compared to the previous year. This also applies to health insurance. Life insurance is also doing quite well.

Life insurance calculates 1.8%.

Yes. Nevertheless, our cancellation rates in life insurance are well below the market level, and new business is developing positively.

The result of normal business operations is in the order of 350 million euros. Maybe around 400 million euros are achievable after 384 million euros last year. The investment result, which partly benefits customers, is increasing from 500 million euros towards 800 million euros.

The loss is largely compensated by the withdrawal from the fluctuation reserve in motor insurance. After 162 million euros last year, it is now about 400 million euros. We have no decision-making leeway here. This mechanism is specifically defined.

In 2021, we still had a total of 1.2 billion euros. Looking at the subarea of comprehensive insurance, the reserve is partly empty.

As mentioned, I am curious about how much we can catch up in motor insurance. Intra-year, we will develop positively in any case. In liability, accident, property, legal protection, life, and health insurance, we expect continuous positive developments in new business. The premium volume in motor insurance will increase significantly. This means that the weight of motor insurance within the HUK group will continue to increase. An environment where customers increasingly care about the price of their motor insurance is good for us.

This is still a long way off. Given the new claims reality, the turn of 2024/2025 could be lively. HUK-Coburg would benefit. Nevertheless, challenging times for motor insurers will persist.