The 19th edition of the IRB+Market Bulletin, a monthly report from the IRB+Intelligence platform pointed out that, in March, the insurance sector raised R$ 13 billion in revenue, an increase of 13.8% compared to the same period in 2021. The Auto segment accumulates the biggest increase: 28%. Rural and Credit and Guarantee dropped 5.4% and 1.2%, respectively. In the analysis of March over February 2022, there was an increase of 7.6% in the insurance sector, with Auto and Life being the main highlights: + 18.9% and + 11.4%, respectively.
In the quarter, the insurance market advanced 16.1% compared to the first three months of last year, reaching R$ 37.8 billion. There were R$ 5.2 billion more in premiums written, which represents the best performance in the sector in the period since the beginning of the record in 2014. Auto, Life and Rural were the segments that most contributed to the growth of quarterly revenue, totaling, together, 80.9% of this evolution.
The progress of the insurance market was superior to that of other important economic sectors. According to IBGE data, in 1Q22, the industrial sector fell by 4.5% and retail trade grew by 1.3%.
By segments
In March, Life earned R$ 4.7 billion, an increase of 12.8% compared to the same month of 2021 and ended the quarter with an increase of 10.9% compared to 1Q21. In March, Auto totaled R$ 3.9 billion and grew 28%. In the year to date, it recorded progress of 23.8%, the highest since 2014, which resulted in R$ 2.1 billion more compared to 1Q21.
The Damages and Liabilities segment recorded R$ 2.1 billion in March (+7.8%). In the quarter, it grew 12%. The Property and Transport business lines, which represent, respectively, 24.5% and 16.9% of the portfolio in this segment, were the main responsible for the increase. Individual against Damages earned R$ 1 billion in March (+8.9%). In the year to date, the segment variation was 0.6% in relation to 1Q21.
The Rural segment had its first decrease of the year (-5.4%) and raised R$ 812 million in the third month of the year. Despite this, in 2022, it grew by 51% compared to the first three months of 2021, an increase of R$ 901 million, accounting for 17.2% of the growth in the insurance sector, behind only Auto and Life. The loss ratio for the segment, from January to March 2022, was 236.4%, being the only one above 100% in the sector.
Finally, Credit and Guarantee earned, in March, R$ 398 million in revenue (-1.2%). As a result of the 10.1% drop in the Credit business line, partially offset against the growth in the Guarantee line (2.8%), which represented 71.3% of the segment in the month. In the first quarter of the year, there was an increase of 21.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, due to the evolution of the Insured Guarantee – Public Sector product, which increased by 18.6%, representing 47% of the increase in the quarter.
Loss Ratio
In March, the sector’s loss ratio increased by 4.9 percentage points (p.p.) compared to the same month in 2021, closing at 57.7%. In the first quarter of 2022, the index grew by 15.1 p.p. compared to the rate recorded in the same period last year, due to the high impact of the Rural segment: 64.3%. If the sector were not considered in the analysis, the insurance companies’ loss ratio would be 49.3%, 0.8% above the 1Q21 base, also excluding Rural.
The IRB+Market Bulletin summarizes insurance operations based on public data made available by Susep on 05/16, considering damage, liability and personal insurance. The edition also lists the top five insurance groups by line of business. The analysis is available, in full, on the IRB Brasil RE website. On the same website, the IRB+Insurance Market Dashboard allows dynamic and free consultation of information from the entire sector.
