Insurers’ gross premium income up 18.56% in 2009

TIRANA, August 26ؔhe gross premium income of Albanian insurers rose by an annual 18.56% in the first seven months of the year to 4.78 billion Lek (36million euro), official statistics indicated on Wednesday.
Gross premiums from non-life insurance rose by an annual 17.2% to 4.36 billion Lek through July, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report. The number of non-life insurance policies increased by an annual 15% to 410,116.
Gross premiums from life insurance totaled 411 million Lek, 35.17% higher on the year. The number of life insurance policies rose by an annual 15% to 34,458.
Albania’s ten insurers paid 926.2 million Lek in claims through July, up by 27.4% on the year. The number of claims in the seven-month period increased by an annual 1,677 to 7,066, of which only 33 were life insurance claims. Only three companies – Sigal, INSIG and Sicred – offer life insurance services in Albania.
Sigal Life leads the life insurance segment with a market share of 63.43% through July, up from 44.63% a year earlier. Sicred follows suit with 14.81% of market share, down from the 31.39% it had a year earlier.
Sigal also ranked first on the non-life insurance segment with a 29.23% market share, slightly up from 27.42% a year earlier. Sigma comes second, with a 15.7% market share from the 15.1% it had through July last year.