Albanian Insurers’ H1 Premium Income Down 1.62% Y/Y to 15.6 Mln Euro

TIRANA, Aug. 5 – Albanian insurers’ gross premium income in the first half of the current year fell 1.62% on the year to 1.91 billion leks ($20 million/15.6 million euro), as falling income from mandatory insurance was not fully compensated for by rising voluntary insurance income, official statistics said. The 10 insurers operating in Albania reported a combined gross premium income of 1.94 billion leks for the same period last year. For the first six months of the current year the insurers earned 1.19 billion leks in gross income from mandatory insurance policies, mostly covering third-party liability.
This was 3.25% lower than in the year-ago period due to a cut in fees on third-party liability insurance policies introduced in April last year, Albania’s Insurance Supervision Authority said in its six-month report posted on the regulator’s website. Mandatory insurance policies accounted for 62.67% of all insurance policies sold in Albania through June, down from 63.68% a year earlier.
Income from voluntary insurance premiums for the first half of 2006 totaled 711.2 million leks, up 1.12% on the year, the insurance regulator said. Albanian insurers paid out 667.2 million leks on claims through June, up 12.21% from the same period last year. The indemnity/premium income ratio in the non-life insurance segment on the first six months was 37.54%, up from 32.16% a year earlier. Just three of Albania’s 10 insurers offer life insurance.
The life insurers reported a combined gross premium income of 148.3 million leks for the first six months of 2006, a jump of 32.4% from the year-ago period. Insurance company INSIG, which is slated for privatization, was leader in the life insurance segment with a 49.93% market share. Privately-owned Sigal kept its leading position in the non-life insurance segment with a market share of 28.50% at the end of June, rising from 27.87% at the end of the previous month.