The Irish insurance sector will continue to make losses in 2015 and 2016. That is the view of insurance giant FBD in an interim management statement.

FBD believes that although insurance premiums have increased significantly, the rates have not risen sufficiently to compensate for a difficult claims environment. The statement added that FBD did not expect this situation to change in 2016 and major insurers will continue to be in the red.

The FBD interim management statement detailed a 9.2% decline in policy volumes in the year to date, while insurance rates went up by 9.1%. The claims environment was said to remain a major challenge although the rate of claims had slowed. FBD reported a loss of €96m for the first six months of 2015.