Temporary air hole or lasting trend? Savers dipped heavily into their life insurance contracts in May, withdrawing 1.6 billion euros (deposits minus withdrawals), France Assureurs said on Friday. An outflow of such magnitude had not been seen since May 2020 (-2 billion euros), at the height of the health crisis. The haemorrhage was, once again, strong on funds in euros (-3.3 billion euros), whose remuneration (2% on average), pales in comparison to that of the livret A (3 % net). “Life insurance is a victim of the household craze for precautionary savings,” confirms Philippe Crevel, director of Cercle de l’épargne.
“Life insurance fell in May but the balance sheet remains positive for the year”, argues the director general of the professional federation of insurers Franck Le Vallois. Over the first five months of the year, net inflows amounted to 2.7 billion euros, driven by unit-linked (equities, etc.). An amount disproportionate to the sums invested in the Livret A account between January and May (24.5 billion euros).
The next few months promise to be difficult for life insurance, whose total outstanding amounts to 1,883 billion euros. “It should suffer from the probable increase in the rate of the booklet A, on August 1, advances Philippe Crevel. This bodes well for the next few months of mixed results for life insurance. The remuneration of the booklet A could indeed go to 4%.
The supervisor closely follows developments in life insurance. “In the first quarter of 2023, redemptions on all supports started to rise again (5.7%), with a level not reached for ten years, which leads insurers to be vigilant”, alerted the Bank on Friday. de France in its semi-annual report on “the risk assessment of the financial system. »