(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s insurers are preparing to boost dividends to the highest of any industry except utilities, making use of expanding surplus capital to offer investors an alternative to record low interest earnings from bonds.
Companies including Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, may provide a dividend yield averaging 4.4% this year versus 4.1% for the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Insurers are poised to overtake telecommunications firms to become the second-biggest payers in the 18-industry Stoxx Europe 600 Index. They ranked third last year.
The industry is boosting payouts after its pool of shareholder funds swelled to 422 billion euros ($478 billion) at the end of the first half, helped by cost cuts and gains from a bond market rally, according to data provided by Bloomberg Intelligence. Deflation and creaking economic growth forced the European Central Bank to cut deposit rates to negative last June.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
