Insurance market gross premium income in 2009 rises 25% on the year.

TIRANA, July 2ؔhe gross premium income of Albanian insurers rose by an annual 25.2% in the first five months of 2009 to 3.3 billion Lek (25.1 million euro), official statistics indicated on Thursday.
Gross premiums from non-life insurance rose by an annual 24.8% to 3 billion Lek through May, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report. The number of non-life insurance policies increased by an annual 32.1% to 275,190. Gross premiums from life insurance totaled 285 million lek, 29.3% higher on the year. The number of life insurance policies rose by an annual 15% to 23,626.
Albania’s ten insurers paid 655.6 million Lek in claims through May, up by 26.8% on the year. The number of insurance claims in the five-month period increased by an annual 931 to 4,869, of which only 22 were life insurance claims. Sigal, INSIG and Sicred are the only companies to offer life insurance services in Albania.
Local insurer Sigal Life ranked first in the life insurance segment with a market share of 51.3% in the first five months of the year, up from 34.1% a year earlier. Sicred came second with a 25.96% market share, down from the 29% it had a year earlier.
Sigal ranked first in the non-life insurance segment with a 29% market share, slightly up from 28.9% a year earlier. Sigma, whose shares fell to 16.5% from the 16.8% it had through May last year, was ranked second.