Insurers’ Gross Premium Income Rises 29.4% Y/Y to 2.65 Bln Lek in the first 4 months of 2009

TIRANA, May 26–The gross premium income of Albanian insurers rose by an annual 29.4% in the first four months of 2009 to 2.65 billion Lek (19.98 million EUR), official statistics indicated on Tuesday.
Gross premiums from non-life insurance rose by an annual 29.17% to 2.45 billion Lek through April, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report. The number of non-life insurance policies increased by an annual 31% to 212,681.Gross premiums from life insurance totaled 208 million leks, 32.5% higher on the year. The number of life insurance policies rose by an annual 8.92% to 17,940.Albania’s 10 insurers paid 479.5 million Lek in claims through April, up by 19.1% on the year. The number of claims increased by 767 to 3,795, of which only 19 were life insurance claims. Only three companies – Sigal, INSIG and Sicred, offer life insurance services in Albania.
Local insurer Sigal Life ranked first on the life insurance segment with a market share of 51.3% in the first four months of the year, up from 36.21% a year earlier. Second came Sicred with 25% market share, down from the 31.4% it had a year earlier.
Sigal ranked first on the non-life insurance segment with a 29.3% market share, slightly up from 28.8% a year earlier. Second came Sigma, whose share fell to 16.9% from the 17.5% it had through April last year.