(BFM Bourse) – The Omicron wave and the Ukrainian conflict have not discouraged savings among the French. Life insurance, retirement savings plans and regulated passbooks were full at the start of the year. Riskier investments were also popular with savers…
The French life insurance market is in great shape: it recorded net inflows of 8.4 billion euros in the first quarter, an amount more seen since 2011 for this period of the year, according to figures published on Wednesday by France Insurers.
“Life insurance maintains a positive dynamic,” welcomed the director general of the professional federation, Franck Le Vallois, during a conference call.
Net inflows in March alone reached 2.2 billion euros, again a record since 2011 for a third month of the year.
In detail, life insurance contributions (deposits) amounted to 14.3 billion euros last month, i.e. 1.1 billion more than in March 2021, for benefits also on the rise, at 12 .1 billion euros.
Savers have opted more for riskier investments (unit-linked or unit-linked) which offer a potentially higher return than funds in euros. They represent 40% of contributions since the beginning of the year. In total, at the end of March, outstanding life insurance contracts reached 1,857 billion euros, up 2% year-on-year.
Households in “savings mode”
“During this first quarter, households were in ‘savings’ mode”, commented Philippe Crevel, director of Cercle de l’Epargne. According to him, “the Omicron wave and the Ukrainian conflict did not encourage them to slow down their savings effort and draw on those built up since March 2020”.
The federation also returned to retirement savings plans (PER), a product launched in 2019 by the government as part of its Pact law encouraging the French to invest in the economy in order to supplement their retirement pensions. In March 2022, the symbolic threshold of 3 million insured by a PER was crossed, notes France Assureurs.
Life insurance had suffered in 2020 from the pandemic, the French favoring immediately available savings (such as the Livret A) at the time. But they largely returned in 2021, depositing 150 billion euros there over the year, a record.
Regulated savings products, Livret A and sustainable and solidarity development (LDDS) in the lead, have not been outdone since the start of the year. They both reached 483.6 billion euros in assets at the end of March, according to data from the Caisse des dépôts et consignations published last Thursday.
Sabrina Sadgui, with AFP
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