World Champion Austria Insurers
The Austrian insurance companies are world-class The Vienna Insurance Group is a big player in CEE. CEO Elisabeth Stadler tells us about her company’s operations.
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Photo: PhilippLipiarski
ustrian insurance companies are among the most stable in the world. While insurers in the United States went bust, the Austrian ones didn’t twitch even during the most severe crisis. Insurance companies with their roughly 60,000 staff are important employers in Austria and have a stabilising effect on the financial markets. They have assets of more than 110 billion euros in government bonds, real estate, holdings and stocks. The sector makes a massive contribution to socio-political questions such old-age provision, health, coverage in traffic or during sports activities, protection of property and economic operation.
Elisabeth Stadler, CEO of Vienna Insurance Group
Austrians believe in insurances: They have taken out more than 50 million policies. Overall, in 2019, the Austrian insurance sector recorded an increase in premiums of 2.1 percent to 17.7 billion euros. Like in the rest of Europe, there was a decrease in premiums for life insurances due to low interest rates. The overall premium generation was at about 18 billion euros in 2020, which is an increase of about 1.9 percent. Big player in the East One of the big players in Central and Eastern Europe is the Vienna Insurance Group VIG. It emerged from the Wiener Städtische Versicherung, the corporation’s predecessor which was only operating in Austria. Today, VIG has about 50 subsidiaries in the entire CEE region. In 2016, Elisabath Stadler, who graduated in actuary, became the CEO of VIG Holding. Speaking to “World Champion Austria”, she tells us of the operations and plans of one of the biggest insurance companies in Central and Eastern Europe. Can you tell us about the advantages for your business of being headquartered in Austria? Like many Austrian companies we were able to benefit from the fall of the Iron Curtain by expanding to Eastern Europe. With the break-up of the Eastern Bloc Austria moved from Europe’s border to its centre and is now the optimal platform for our expansion strategy due to the high economic and structural development. We were the first mover to begin expanding to the CEE region exactly 30 years ago. Today, we are not only the market leader in Austria but also in Central and Eastern Europe. We are number one or at least among the top 5 in the majority of our markets. Being an Austrian company, what makes VIG so successful in Central and Eastern Europe?
