TIRANA, Jan.7- It has been a prosperous time for the insurance business as life insurance premiums continue increasing while claims continue to fall. Recently released figures show Albanians spent more on life insurance during the first 11 months of 2007 than in the same period last year. The Authority of Financial Supervision has published data comparing the trade volume for insurance companies in 2006 and 2007. These figures show a 37.06 percent increase in premiums sold. The volume of primes has gone up by a net value of 1.47 billion lek and in total has reached 5,43 billion lek. The Authority explains that obligatory insurance portfolios have contributed to this rise in business by 49.75 percent. A considerable increase has been noticed in the transactions of business owners securing their property against potential accidents, with some 45.000 such transactions being purchased last year. The volume of non-life insurance has gone up by 36.42 percent for a total of 5 billion lek. The contracts signed during this year amounts to 459,395, an increase of 6.56 percent.
Dominance of life insurance element
Albanians have shown a significant demand for a variety of life insurance products. The official data show that all indicators in this category have gone up compared to last year. The volume of premium life insurances has reached 382, 3 million lek, or 46.05 percent more than in 2006. The policies purchased have gone up by an impressive 80 percent, reaching a total of 37,502.
Claims paid
The increase in the indicators have been unhampered by damages paid out which, for the period, have been considerably lower. For the entire 11 months of 2007, the damages paid by insurance companies do not rise above 1.2 billion leks. Translated into a revenue expense ratio, this figure means that insurance companies have spent only 22 percent of their revenues on paying out claims, thus securing a high profit margin. The increase in revenues has been 37 percent while expenses rose only eight percent.
