Number of insurance companies in Belgium 2008-2019
The biggest insurance branch in Belgium is the "life" branch, which focuses on life insurances, pensions and funeral in kind insurances and reached a market share of life insurance business in terms of gross premium, the ratio of gross life insurance premium to the total gross premium, of approximately 76 percent in Belgium in 2005. This, however, decreased to approximately 54.7 percent in 2018. This development coincides with the European Central Bank purchasing assets on credit markets across Europe and, consequently, low interest rates in long-term investments, such as the capital market rate of ten-year government bonds in Belgium. From 2008 onwards, the number of life insurance companies decreased steadily. In 2008, there were approximately 30 companies active on the domestic market with 16 companies by the end of 2019.