The average rate served for 2022 by euro life insurance funds averages 2%, a first since 2015, estimates Monday the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR) in a study. However, this rate remains well below the remuneration of the Livret A.
Good news for the remuneration of euro life insurance funds whose capital is guaranteed. After many consecutive years of decline, the rise in rates (…) has led insurers to increase the yield served to their customers, notes the policeman of insurers and banks, backed by the Banque de France. We have to go back to 2015 to find a higher average, 2.27%, according to the same source.
Since the beginning of the year, each insurer has revealed its rate for 2022. The savings association Afer, which generally acts as a barometer for the rest of the profession, is for example in the average, with 2.01%.
Life insurance: all 2022 rates, from best to worst
A lower rate than the Livret A
This good news for life insurance rates hides less good news. Indeed, this average rate, estimated at 2%, is however significantly lower than that of the Livret A, the flagship regulated savings product, set at 3% since 1 February. It is all the more so since it is subject to social security contributions currently set at 17.2%, unlike the Livret A. The returns on all of these savings products are, however, lower than inflation, around 6 % In France.
The ACPR also notes that insurers have used their reserves, the provisions for profit-sharing (PPB) accumulated during the period of falling rates, to increase their rates this year.
It also warns that the rate hikes decided in recent months by central banks, in particular the European Central Bank (ECB), will only gradually affect the assets of policyholders.
An average capital of approximately 100,000 euros per subscriber
The long maturity of the portfolios held by insurers, which had enabled them for years to provide a rate of return higher than that of the market, conversely limits their ability to pass on the rise in rates as quickly as other products such as booklets regulations, indicates the ACPR.
Total life insurance outstandings stood at 1,871 billion euros at the end of January, ie a good third of French savings, according to the latest data available from France Assureurs. Some 18 million people have life insurance, representing an average capital of around 100,000 euros per subscriber, often invested in several contracts.
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