BBVA has turned the tables in the insurance field. In the midst of a takeover bid for Sabadell, the bank led by Carlos Torres has bet heavily on this business and has already surpassed it in billing between life and non-life premiums, according to the latest quarterly rankings published by the consulting firm Icea.
In total, the division of BBVA Seguros, a subsidiary of the banking entity dedicated to the insurance business, invoiced 1,139 million euros in premiums until September, which constitutes a growth of 28.75%. To this information we must add the presence of the joint venture with Allianz, which has to date entered 380 million19.7% more.
The opposite trend occurs in Sabadell. Josep Oliu’s entity does not have a subsidiary like BBVA expressly for insurance, but it has two 50/50 companies with the Swiss insurer Zurich: Bansabadell Life and Bansabadell General Insurance. The first issued premiums worth 1,259 million until Septemberwhich implies a decrease of 37.3%. The other joint venture It is more of a minority, and billed until the ninth month 148.2 million euros.
The sum, therefore, between BBVA Seguros and its half-partnership with Allianz obtains a result in September of more than 1,500 million in income, for the 1,407 million euros of the two joint companies in Sabadell and Zurich. It is, therefore, a gap between banks of almost 112 million of euros in favor of the Basque entity, when last year the order was reversed.
In 2023, which was an exceptional year for life insurers due to the state of interest rates, Sabadell issued premiums accumulated until September worth 1,859 million euros, while BBVA stayed at 1,112 million. Therefore, the gap of 742 million euros in favor of the Catalan entity It has become a disadvantage that, so far in 2024, has been more than 800 million euros between the growth of BBVA and the decline of Sabadell.
Life, the branch of most differences
The origin of this hole in Sabadell’s accounts originates in the branch of life. With the reductions in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB), added to the fact that bank deposits have begun to work, clients are sliding towards another type of investment with more profitability despite sacrificing coverage.
Here, Bansabadell Vida loses 37.5% of the premiums issuedwhich translated is about 500 million less and a market share of 5.69%. However, BBVA’s business is one of the only groups that behaves positively in this area and grows more than 300 million euros in premiums to 961 million, still below Sabadell. But compared to 2023, the gap, which was more than 1,000 million euros, has been reduced to 286 million.
In non-life insurance, BBVA already had an advantage, since Sabadell has its subsidiaries with Zurich that are more specialized in the life branch. Even so, the General Insurance joint company records good performance (+11.73%) compared to September 2023, and issues premiums worth 148 million. Together with those of Bansabadell Vida, which has a more residual business here, the total is 159.5 million. However, here the joint venture of BBVA and Allianz reigns among the entities and has a turnover of 380 million euros, with a growth of almost 10 percentage points more. Added to this is the role of BBVA Seguros, which brings in 177.7 million, making a total of 557.9 million euros.
More than 12,000 million
The five most important banking entities (CaixaBank, Santander, BBVA, Sabadell and Bankinter) issued premiums worth 12,880 million euros together between the life and non-life branches until September. VidaCaixaa subsidiary of the Catalan bank, is the main company in the sector, since it alone had a turnover of more than 8,000 million euros in these nine months. Santander was second among banks, with 1,775 million between its subsidiaries and joint ventures.
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