Insurance market increases by 6.5% in Jan-March

TIRANA, April 24 – The Albanian insurance market registered an increase of 6.56 per cent year-on-year during the January-March 2010 period, the Financial Supervisory Authority said in a report.
Gross written premiums reached the amount of about 2 billion Lek during the January-March period or nearly 7 % more than the same period last year.
The number of insurance contracts signed over January – March 2010 was 135,080, falling by 16 % compared to last year.
The Albanian insurance market continued to be again non-life oriented which constitutes about 92% of the overall premiums’ volume, in this way leaving life insurance with a share of about 8%. From the point of view of market structure, according to compulsory and voluntary insurances, gross written premiums from voluntary insurance constitute 56 %, while compulsory insurance premiums 44 % of the market premiums. The growth in voluntary premiums has influenced the change of the market structure with the voluntary insurance gaining importance, said the Financial Supervisory Authority.
Voluntary insurance premiums reached about 1.1 billion Lek or 25.49 % more than January – March 2009 but experienced a decrease of 33.27 % in the number of insurance contracts compared to the same period of the previous year.
Non-life voluntary insurance revenues increased by approximately 26.84 % compared to January – March 2009.
The increase in total gross claims paid was about 40.88 % compared to January – March 2009. The major amount of paid claims belongs to automobile insurance with 406 million Leks or 86.96 % of the total paid claims.
The main insurers in Albania in the non-life market are Sigal with a 28.94% market share, followed by Sigma at 17.64%, and Insig at 12.53%.