Market continued to be non-life oriented with about 90 percent of the overall premiums volume, leaving life insurance with a share of about 9 percent
TIRANA, July 5 – Gross written premiums during the January-May period registered only a slight increase of 0.72 percent year-on-year reaching 3.3 billion lek (around 30 million dollars), the Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report.
The slight continuous growth came despite a sharp fall of 17.62 percent in the number of signed insurance policies which reached more than 261,000 in the January-May period.
The market continued to be non-life oriented with about 90 percent of the overall premiums volume, leaving life insurance with a share of about 9 percent. Gross written premiums from voluntary insurance constitute 51 percent, while compulsory insurance premiums 49 percent of the market premiums. The growth in voluntary premiums influenced the change of the market structure with the voluntary insurance gaining importance.
Data showed companies paid 803 million lek (8 million dollars) in damages during the first five months of this year, 25 percent more compared to the same period last year. The major amount of paid claims belongs to motor insurance with 692 million lek or 83.62 percent of the total paid 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 26 percent of the compulsory and 37 percent of the voluntary market, according to the Authority.
The market is shared by 8 main companies which control from 6.6 to 26 percent in the compulsory market and 3.71 percent to 37 percent in the voluntary insurance market.
State-owned insurer Insig, which has been put on the privatization list of public assets, is currently the fifth biggest insurer, controlling 7.6 percent of the compulsory market and 11.7 percent of the voluntary.
Other companies operating in Albania are Sigma, which is the second biggest insurer with around 16 percent of the market share followed by Interalbanian and Atlantic.
Intersig and Albsig are the smallest operators controlling only 3.7 percent and 4.5 in the voluntary insurance, according to the January-May data of the Financial Supervisory Authority.
