TIRANA, Jan. 10 – New insurance premiums during the first eleven months of this year climbed to 7.3 billion lek (around 73 million dollars), up 2.28 percent compared to the same period last year, slightly recovering compared to last November. The number of insurance contracts continued declining, dropping to 609,372, down 12.06 percent compared the January-November 2009, the Financial Supervisory Authority said in a statement.
The market continued remaining non-life oriented with around 89.7 percent of the total premiums, leaving life insurance with a 9.6 percent share and reinsurance with 0.65 percent.
Compulsory insurance premiums accounted for a majority of 52.9 percent compared to 47.1 percent for voluntary insurance.
During the January-November period gross paid claims, the majority of which belongs to motor insurance, further grew to 25.4 percent compared to the same period last year. A majority of around 87 percent of them, worth 1.68 billion lek (15 million dollars) went to pay motor insurance claims.
The biggest increase is reported in the most common Green Card car insurance with 1,186 claims almost double compared to the 652 claims in the during the first 11 months of 2009.
Claims for Domestic MTPL and Casco insurance remained at almost the same levels as in the January-November 2009.
According to the Financial Supervision Authority, Albania continues to be one of the countries having the lowest annual consumption per capita of insurance.
Albanians pay on average 20 dollars annually for compulsory and voluntary insurance of vehicles, property and life, a small amount compared to other European countries.
The insurance market continues to be dominated by Sigal which holds 24 percent of the compulsory and 41 percent of the voluntary market, according to the Authority.
State-owned insurer Insig, which has been put on the privatization list of public assets, is currently the fifth biggest insurer, controlling 7.3 percent of the compulsory market and 11 percent of the voluntary.
EC report
The insurance market has registered gradual expansion, albeit from a low base. In 2008, total assets amounted to approximately 1.4% of GDP. All 10 licensed companies active in the sector are domestic, but since 2007 Albania has attracted increased foreign (EU) participation. In the voluntary insurance sector, non-life insurance represents around 83% of turnover. The private pensions market is still underdeveloped. Three companies are licensed to offer private pensions. At the end of 2009, the legal framework for private pensions was amended by a new law on voluntary pension plans. The law opens up the possibility for the establishment of defined contributions third pillar pension funds, but does not reflect all the provisions of the acquis. Overall, the non-banking financial sector is still undeveloped and plays a negligible role as a source of private sector financing.
The Tirana Stock Exchange was formally established in 1996, but there are no companies
listed on the stock exchange.
