GVZ: good business year - high loss amounts
GVZ Gebäudeversicherung Kanton Zürich can look back on a successful financial year. Increased premium income thanks to high construction activity and solid investment income led to an overall result of CHF 44.2 million in 2017, GVZ writes. It recorded an increase in the claims amount.
Gross premiums grew by 1.8% year-on-year to 124.2 million francs and the fire protection levy increased to 34.8 million francs. The main reason for the increase was the high level of construction activity in the canton of Zurich, said the GVZ.
High amount of damage
The estimated damage total amounted to 64.8 million Swiss francs, which was significantly above the previous year's figure of 38.2 million Swiss francs and above the ten-year average. The two storms on August 1 and 2, 2017 alone caused damage amounting to 22.8 million francs. In total, the building insurance recorded fire damage of 39.9 million Swiss francs and natural hazard damage of 24.9 million Swiss francs.
Income from fixed assets was pleasing, thanks to which the provision for market risks can be further increased. The investment result amounted to 20.8 million Swiss francs. GVZ closed the 2017 financial year with an overall result of 44.2 million francs, compared with 52.5 million francs in the previous year. The profit will be allocated to the reserve fund, according to the statement.
The natural hazards insurer took on board the feedback from the customer survey in 2016 and has already implemented some improvements in 2017. Among other things, the website has been made more user-friendly. And in the recently published brochure "Frequently Asked Questions," customers can find helpful information about insurance in a compact form.
GVZ is also getting in shape and sees digitization as an opportunity to further improve its services: It has developed a strategy that will drive the digital transformation over the next few years. The first measures include the digitization of all manual files.
More than claims settlement
GVZ does not just settle claims. Under the motto "Secure & Insure," it focuses on loss prevention, limitation and settlement. Raising public awareness of loss prevention is an ongoing issue: For example, the wide-ranging training program in the areas of fire protection and firefighting or the "schuetzen-sie-ihr-haus.ch" campaign made important contributions to the protection of people and property in the canton of Zurich last year. The GVZ supported the fire departments in a targeted manner and in a spirit of partnership. The focus was on the continuation of the program Fire department 2020, which aims to further strategic development and ensure operational readiness while maintaining an appropriate deployment of resources.
Press release GVZ
