Finance and Insurance

The financial industry is different

The finance and insurance sector - or the financial industry - is in many ways different than the rest of the private sector. Both in its products and its position relative to other companies and industries, the financial sector has a unique position.

The finance and insurance industry in 2008 encompassed 7,100 more companies than in 2000 - a growth of 187.5%.¹

Finance and insurance industries can roughly be divided into two parts in terms of growth in the number of companies: The number of companies within the sub-industries of financial services and credit companies has increased while the number has decreased within banks, insurance and pension providers.

The changes have also shifted the composition of companies in the industry. For example, credit unions, which in 2000 accounted for 73% of the total number of companies in the industry now accounts for 90% of the industry. The number of companies in insurance and pension are in the same period fell by more than 1/3.²

A volatile revenue and methodology
Amongst banks, pension -and insurance companies as well as credit companies apply different methods when calculating revenues. As such, interests and fees amount to the revenue in the banks while premiums amount to revenue in the insurance companies. As the methods in the respective sub-sectors of the industry has changed during the latest period, it can be problematic to facilitate an accurate revenue figure for the entire financial industry. As such, the numbers for the period 2005-2008 has been chosen, as the methods has not changed in during.

When the numbers have been calculated, the industry has experienced an increase in revenue of 57.5% from 2005 to 2008, out of which the banks can be attributed the largest increase in absolute numbers by more than 150 bn. DKK equivalent to 81%. Compared, the credit companies' revenues increase is more than 100%, however, in absolute number the amount is a mere 17 bn. DKK.³

Fall and rise in employment

The number of full-time employees in the industry has also witnessed fluctuations, however was in 2008 was only 5% over 2000, equivalent of an increase of just over 4,000 full-time people.

The increase, however, reflected a temporary decline in 2003-2004 where the total number of employees was reduced by almost 6,000 people compared to the 2000 level. In the period 2004 to 2008 however a steady increase was observed.

The increase covers some differences within the industry: While a lot more credit unions have been established since 2000, the number of full-time employees in this sub-sector was in 2008 4.8% below 2000-levels. The opposite trend can be observed within banks. Their total number of companies has decreased by 20% while the number of full-time employees has increased by almost 10%.⁴

¹ Statistikbanken, GF2.
² Statistikbanken, GF2.
³ Finansrådet, Pension og Forsikring
⁴ Statistikbanken, GF2.

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