Swiss Life Holding AG, Switzerland’s biggest life-insurer, lost a contract to provide life and accident insurance to Swiss pension fund Gemini because it wants to offer the insurance itself to save costs.

The pension fund, which manages 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.6 billion) for companies that are too small to manage their own plans, has closed a so-called excess of loss insurance contract for three years with Elips Life for risks that exceed 1.5 million francs, Markus Koch, Gemini’s head of distribution, said in a telephone interview. Below that level the Zurich-based pension fund will cover the risks itself.

The contract with Swiss Life was worth “a low double- digit-million premium amount,” said Koch.

Bloomberg