Premium income rises by 20% on the year for insurance companies

TIRANA, Sep 28ؔhe gross premium income of Albanian insurers rose by an annual 19.8% in the first eight months of the year to 5.5 billion Lek (40.7 million euro), official statistics indicated on Monday.
Gross premiums from non-life insurance rose by an annual 18.3% to 5.01 billion Lek through August, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report. The number of non-life insurance policies increased by an annual 17.9% to 488,125.
Gross premiums from life insurance totaled 465.8 million Lek, 38.7% higher on the year. The number of life insurance policies rose by an annual 12.2% to 39,912.
Albania’s ten insurers paid 1.04 billion Lek in claims through August, up by 14.5% on the year. The number of claims in the eight-month period increased by an annual 1,940 to 8,024, of which only 40 were life insurance claims. Only three companies – Sigal, INSIG and Sicred – offer life insurance services in Albania.
Local insurer Sigal Life ranked first on the life insurance segment with a market share of 54.7% through August, up from 37.8% a year earlier. Second came Sicred with a 22.4% market share, down from the 28.5% it had a year earlier.
Sigal also ranked first on the non-life insurance segment with a 30.1% market share, slightly up from 27.5% a year earlier. Second came Sigma, whose share rose to 15.2% from the 15.1% it had through August last year.