Insurance market grows 6.6% in Jan-Feb. 2011

TIRANA, March 28 – New insurance premiums during the first two months of 2011 registered moderate growth, climbing to 1.47 billion lek, up 6.6 percent compared to the same period in 2010, the Financial Supervisory Authority said in its latest report. For the first time in more than one year, the number of insurance policies registered a significant increase, with their number doubling to 189,958 compared to the first two months of 2010. The market continued remaining non-life oriented with around 86 percent of the total premiums, leaving life insurance with a 14 percent share. Voluntary insurance premiums accounted for a majority of 58 percent compared to 42 percent for compulsory insurance.
Compulsory motor insurance in January 2011 grew by 8.3 percent to 616 million lek, accounting for 33 percent of total insurance premiums.
Meanwhile, voluntary insurance premiums grew by 5.4 percent to 855 million lek.
Gross paid claims grew by 7.2 percent to 336.8 million lek. The majority of them, 65.7 percent of the total belong to motor insurance.
New insurance premiums during 2010 climbed to 8.2 billion lek (around 82 million dollars), up 4.17 percent compared to the January-December 2009, registering a significant drop compared to 2009 when the market increased by 11.3 percent year-on-year. The number of insurance policies continued declining during the whole of 2010, dropping to 736,278, down 2.57 percent compared to 2009, the Financial Supervisory Authority said in a statement.
During the January-December 2010, gross paid claims, the majority of which belongs to motor insurance, grew by a record 32.6 percent compared to the same period in 2009. A majority of around 83.2 percent of them, worth 1.9 billion lek (19 million dollars) went to pay motor insurance claims.
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.
All 10 licensed companies active in the sector are domestic, but since 2007 Albania has attracted increased foreign (EU) participation.