Insurance companies on the rise

TIRANA, Oct. 20 – Albanian insurers’ gross premium income through August was 2.81 billion leks. Ten insurers operating in Albania reported that figure which means an increase by one percent on the year to year.
Official statistics show that 1.89 billion leks out of this reported gross income originates by mandatory insurance policies, such as those pertaining to car ownership covering third-party liability. This development alone accounts for a 3.2 percent increase from last year’s figures, according to the report issued by Albania’s Insurance Supervision Authority. The amount paid to claimers through August increased by 4.52 percent. Albanian insurers paid 836.8 million leks to customers in these first eight months of 2006.As far as performance of different kind of products is concerned, the mandatory insurance policies lost ground by reporting a 66.7 percent share of all insurance policies sold till August compared to last year’s 77.6 percent. That was attributed to service diversification by insurance companies which were lately introducing new and compact insurance packages. Voluntary insurance premiums for the first eight months of 2006 have collected 943.1 million leks in revenues, down 3.17 percent year-to-year.
The breakdown according to market share puts INSIG with a 45.83 percent market share on top of the list for the life insurance segment, offered currently by only three of the 10 insurance providers. This positive news comes at a crucial time for INSIG that has been enlisted for privatization up to 61 percent. Life insurers reported a combined gross premium income of 187.4 million leks. This represents a considerable rise of 30 percent for the first eight months of 2006 compared to last year. In the non-life insurance segment, Sigal, an entirely privately owned company, kept its leading position with a market share of 27.65 percent at the end of August, despite a general fall from 28.3 percent at the end of July. The indemnity/premium income ratio in the non-life insurance segment for the first eight months increased from last year’s 25.83 percent to 31.28 percent for 2006.
The insurance regulator introduced last year in April some new regulations pertaining to third-party liability policies which resulted in the cut of these fees. The insurance sector seems to have survived this cost. Nevertheless, this considerable factor has deeply affected the decline in premium income for each of the preceding months.