elipsLife | Annual report 2015
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Consolidated annual report
3.2.2 | Existing markets In the existing markets, the 2015 financial year was dominated by the common factors described in section 3.2.1 ‘Business environment’, which on balance resulted in fiercer competition and a difficult price situation. In addition to these common factors, there were also specific issues affecting each of the different target markets, the most important of which are briefly described below. Developments in Switzerland/Liechtenstein The consolidation of pension funds and collective foundations continued in Switzerland and Liechten stein, increasing the risk capacity of the remaining pension schemes. This has the potential to reduce the volumes ceded to insurance companies and intensify price competition. Medium-sized employers increasingly abandoned the idea of managing their own pension funds and looked for modular administration, asset management and biometric solutions. Smaller companies without their own pension funds also showed interest in this modular approach. elipsLife met these needs by developing the elipsLife BVG solutions. This approach will be expanded in the coming years in order to achieve sustainable growth in the L&H business, paired whenever possible with accident and daily sickness benefits solutions that offer comprehensive support to customers. Another important factor in the Swiss and Liechtenstein markets was the almost without exception weak figures for the daily sickness benefits insurance. As a result, the premiums for daily sickness benefits insurance had to be increased substantially for the first time in many years in an effort to reduce the loss ratios for this segment to a sustainable level again, which is absolutely essential for a healthy and well-functioning insurance market. Against this background, elipsLife’s prospects in Switzerland and Liechtenstein are good. The company has a very good chance of establishing a good mix of insurance lines and generating positive technical results for each of these lines. Developments in the Netherlands In the Netherlands, elipsLife further expanded its market position with the Premium Pension Institu tions (PPI), and all important PPI now work with elipsLife. elipsLife is an attractive partner for PPI as they share similar interests – administration, asset management (banks) and biometric solutions. The PPI business is very attractive for elipsLife because of the low administrative costs, but the lack of opportunities for interaction makes it more difficult to maintain customer relationships. Developments in the Dutch market were also shaped by the successful introduction of a new product for salary components in excess of EUR 100,000, which have been taxed differently since 1 January 2015. elipsLife and an important international distribution partner were the first to come up with a solution. In the first year, elipsLife already signed up over 100 new companies with more than 9,000 affiliates offering interesting down-selling opportunities. Another successful cooperation project with a distribution partner involving an innovative disability product generated additional growth. This innovation was the successful reaction of the distribution partner and elipsLife to a change to the law.