Tirana dominates insurance market with a 60% share

TIRANA, Oct. 15 – The region of Tirana, where around one-third of the country’s 3.2 million population lives and most businesses operate, accounts for 60 around two-thirds of the insurance market in Albania, according to a 2011 report published by the Financial Supervisory Authority. The report on Albania’s insurance geography shows the region of Tirana, which includes the districts of Tirana and Kavaja constitutes 60 percent of the insurance market.
Second comes the region of Durres with 7.89 percent followed by the southern regions of Fier with 5.45 percent and Korca at 4.96 percent. Insurance market share in the remaining regions varies from 0.59 percent in Kukes to 4.12 percent in Gjirokastra.
However, Albania’s per capita consumption of insurance although increasing by 385 lek to 2,937 lek is considered one of the lowest. Albanians pay on average 25 dollars annually for compulsory and voluntary insurance of vehicles, as well as property and life insurance, a small amount compared to other European countries.
Data published by the Financial Supervisory Authority show new insurance premiums in 2011 reached 8.3 billion lek, up only 1.8 percent compared to 2010 despite the number of insurance policies registering a sharp 77 percent increase to 1.3 million. Back in 2010, the insurance market grew by 4.17 percent despite the number of policies dropping by 2.5 percent.
The 2011 growth was stimulated by a boom in health insurance policies following the visa liberalization in mid-Dec. 2010 and less paid claims. Gross paid claims, 78 percent of which belong to compulsory motor insurance, reached around 2.2 billion lek for 2011, down 4.3 percent compared to 2010.
The market continued remaining non-life oriented with around 87 percent of the total premiums, leaving life insurance with a 12.75 percent share and reinsurance with 0.22 percent.