Insurance market up 7.8% in Q1

TIRANA, April 26 – New insurance premiums during the first three months of 2011 registered moderate growth, climbing to 2.23 billion lek, up 7.78 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 296,893 compared to the first quarter of 2010. The market continued remaining non-life oriented with around 88 percent of the total premiums, leaving life insurance with a 12 percent share. Voluntary insurance premiums accounted for a majority of 57 percent compared to 43 percent for compulsory insurance.
Compulsory motor insurance in January-March 2011 grew by 4 percent to 954 million lek, accounting for 33 percent of total insurance premiums.
Meanwhile, voluntary insurance premiums grew by 10.7 percent to 1.27 billion lek.
Gross paid claims continued growing by 8.35 percent to 505.7 million lek. The majority of them, some 70 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.
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.