Swedish life and pensions provider Folksam Liv reported rapid growth in premiums in the first half of this year, rising 59% to SEK8.94bn (€939m) from SEK5.60bn in the same period last year, but warned that growth would stall in the second half.

In its interim report for January to June 2015, Folksam said the continued strong growth was due to a high level of interest in its traditional life insurance, which it said carried good conditions for policyholders.

Jens Henriksson, deputy director and group head of Folksam Liv, said: “Folksam Liv is expected to have lower growth in the rest of the year, compared with the first half.”

This was because it had made changes to its traditional life insurance pension product and stopped selling the mortgage and insurance product Senior Capital, he said.

On July 1, the guarantee level for the company’s traditional pensions was cut, with the return promise applying to only 85% of contributions after that date compared with 95% before.

Folksam said most customers had accepted the new conditions and carried on with their pension savings, but that the changes were expected to result in a slowdown in growth in the autumn.

Folksam Liv’s return for January to June fell to 3.7% from 5.3% in the same period last year.

The solvency level rose to 162% at the end of June from 155% at the end of December, and total assets grew to SEK165.6bn from SEK156.2bn at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, local government sector pension fund KPA Pension, which is 60% owned by Folksam and 40% owned by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL), reported a 4.0% return from January to June, down from 6.0% in the same period the year before.

Premiums grew in the first half to SEK10.2bn from SEK8.8bn, the fund said.

KPA Pension said it had won several pensions contracts in the first half, including contracts from municipalities of the city of Stockholm and of East Gotland.

Assets under management grew to SEK134.6bn at the end of June from SEK116.7bn.

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