Less money for Albanian insurers

TIRANA, Sept. 4 – Albanian insurers’ gross premium income through July fell 0.56 percent annually to 2.34 billion leks ($24.4 million/19 million euro), after a decrease of the income from mandatory and voluntary insurance, official statistics showed on Monday. Ten insurers operating in Albania reported a combined gross premium income of 2.354 billion leks for the first seven months of 2005. Albanian insurers earned 1.49 billion leks in gross income from mandatory insurance policies, mostly covering third-party liability, in the first seven months of the current year. This was 0.08 percent lower than in the year-ago period due to cut in fees on third-party liability insurance policies introduced in April last year, Albania’s Insurance Supervision Authority said in its seven-month report posted on the regulator’s web site. Mandatory insurance policies contributed 63.75 percent of all insurance policies sold in Albania through July, up from 63.45 percent for the year-ago period. Income from voluntary insurance premiums for the first seven months of 2006 totaled 848.5 million leks, down 1.4 percent on the year, the insurance regulator said. Albanian insurers paid out 761.7 million leks on claims through July, up 8.84 percent from the same period last year. The indemnity/premium income ratio in the non-life insurance segment for the first seven months was 34.74 percent, up from 30.97 percent a year earlier. Only three of Albania’s 10 insurers offer life insurance. The life insurers reported a combined gross premium income of 170.6 million leks for the first seven months of 2006, a jump of 29.3 percent from the year-ago period. Insurance company INSIG, which is slated for privatization, was leader in the life insurance segment with a 47.6 percent market share. privately owned Sigal kept its leading position in the non-life insurance segment with a market share of 28.3 percent at the end of July, slightly falling from 28.5 percent at the end of the previous month.