DGAP-News

OVB with strong new business in the first quarter

DGAP-News: OVB Holding AG / Key word(s): Interim Report/Quarter
Results
OVB with strong new business in the first quarter

14.05.2014 / 07:45

---------------------------------------------------------------------

- OVB sees growing objectivity in discussions regarding the regulation of
financial advisory
- Continued dynamic business development in Southern and Western Europe
- Client and consultant numbers have increased
- Confirmation of our 2014 sales and earnings forecast

Cologne, 14 May 2014 - In the first quarter of 2014, the OVB Group
generated total sales commission of EUR49.7 million, which, as expected,
was 9.3% lower than the strong start of the previous year. The latter was
driven by carry-over effects due to the "unisex" issue and pension reforms
in Central and Eastern Europe. With regard to the 2014 sales forecast, this
puts the Group on target. Much better new business than in the previous
year gives reason to be confident.

"We are satisfied with the start into 2014. For further positive
development, stable regulatory and political conditions are of course
particularly important. We therefore welcome an increasingly objective
discussion of financial intermediation and its essential importance for
private pension provision in Germany," said Michael Rentmeister, CEO of
OVB, a financial services group operating throughout Europe, at the
presentation of the results for the first quarter of 2014.

"A more nuanced view can be seen both regarding the issue of transparency
and in the discussion of commissions, which is considering cause and effect
more closely. While large financial advisors have already been documenting
their consulting sessions for twenty years, it cannot be hoped that
insurers with uniform, standardised information sheets will also make their
contribution and thus create transparency and comparability, which was
already supposed to have been achieved by the reform of the Insurance
Contract Act (VVG) in 2008. Moreover, the criticism of financial consulting
based on commission has been muted considerably by concerns recently
expressed by researchers with the methods used in various studies," said
Rentmeister on the current discussions, which in his opinion are in fact
interest-driven - under the guise of consumer protection. "Those looking
for truly suitable role models for regulation requirements in a
low-interest environment must not look in Europe but in Japan. There you
can learn how important it is to leave the solutions to the market
participants even in difficult situations instead of creating new political