Q1 Gross Premium Income Rises 32% Y/Y in Albanian Insurance Market

TIRANA, April 28ؔhe gross premium income of Albanian insurers rose by an annual 31.9% in the first quarter of the year to 1.94 billion ALL (19.5 million USD/14.8 million EUR), official statistics indicated on Tuesday.
Gross premiums from non-life insurance rose by an annual 31.24% to 1.8 billion ALL through March, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report. The number of non-life insurance policies increased by an annual 27% to 148,900.
Gross premiums from life insurance totaled 143.1 million ALL, 40.8% higher on the year. The number of life insurance policies rose by an annual 1.85% to 12,045.
Albania’s 10 insurers paid 382 million ALL in claims through March, up by 23.6% on the year. The number of claims increased by 436 to 2,752, of which only 15 were life insurance claims. Only three companies – Sigal, INSIG and Sicred, offer life insurance services in Albania.
Local insurer Sigal Life (www.sigal.com.al) ranked first on the life insurance segment with a market share of 49.25% in the first quarter, up from 40.4% a year earlier. Sicred ranked second with 27.6% of the market share, down from the 35.7% in the first quarter of 2008.
Sigal ranked first on the non-life insurance segment with a 29.4% market share, slightly up from 29% a year earlier. Second came Sigma, whose share rose to 17.53% from the 16.94% it had through March of last year.