Afer, the leading French association of savers with more than 750,000 members, announced on Wednesday a drop in the rate of return of its fund in euros in 2020, from 1.85% to 1.70%.
This is the eighth consecutive year of decline in yield offered by Afer, whose contracts are managed by the British insurer Aviva, which wants to sell its French subsidiary.
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This drop in the yield of Afer, which generally serves as a barometer for the rest of the profession, is hardly surprising, the funds in euros, whose capital is guaranteed, suffering from the fall in sovereign bond rates.
Government bonds constitute a significant portion of euro fund assets and the negative rates observed in 2018 and 2019 in the euro zone are weighing on returns.
The president of Afer predicts a "
bright future
" for the euro fund
Afer has also drawn on its reserves to the tune of 81 million euros.
Within the association, provisions for profit sharing (PPB) must indeed be returned to policyholders after a maximum of 6 years, against a maximum of eight years in the law.
The PPB is still endowed with 269 million euros.
Despite this new drop in yield, Gérard Bekerman, the president of Afer, predicted a "
bright future
" for the euro fund, during a press conference.
"
These funds have given satisfaction to policyholders, but also to insurers for nearly half a century
" and it is "
indecent to dispute them today
", he declared, while several insurers seek to attract their customers on unit-linked media, which are more profitable, but also more risky, by restricting access to funds in euros.
In 2020, Afer's units of account experienced “
contrasting
”
performances
with stock market indices which experienced historic volatility with the Covid-19 crisis.