We believe that the main threat for an insurance company, under a declining economic environment, may be associated with managerial decisions rather than with decreasing or increasing the percentage of indicators, and this risk is valid in any period of an economy, irrespective that is growing or in recession.
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"We must be realistic, we are living in an economically difficult market, the crisis will have its consequences over the next years, we will have to deal with that, but may be it is in times of crisis that added value is, very often, even more important than price. Competition becomes more important, competition on the quality of the service."
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The crisis wasn't generated by the insurance industry; we were more on the receiving end, when you look at the investment portfolio. But now regulators, policyholders, also supervisors who are acting in the interest of the policyholders and generally Governments feel that we need to scrutinize the different roles of the different players in the crisis, and even if we have more of a siderole, we are still part of the financial services sector, and in that context we are also under scrutiny.
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The recession created negative impact on international financial market. However, the effect on each country was different depending on its internal and external trade. Some countries managed to handle the situation efficiently, whereas a country like Dubai (an independent Emirate in UAE) had to slow down its activities especially in Real Estate/ construction areas.
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As a life insurance "consumer", I think it's too much to say that there is a specific of the Romanian profile market. The attitude of most people regarding financial products in general and, by default, regarding life insurance, has changed since 2009, and I think it is still changing today on all markets.
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The evolution registered by gross written premiums by the entire insurance market in 2009 met ISC expectations. General insurance increased slightly, despite the difficult economic context. I would characterise it as a success given the declines registered by car sales, the leasing and real estate markets, and enterprises in other economic sectors.
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The evolution registered by gross written premiums by the entire insurance market in 2009 met ISC expectations. General insurance increased slightly, despite the difficult economic context. I would characterise it as a success given the declines registered by car sales, the leasing and real estate markets, and enterprises in other economic sectors.
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My challenge and responsibility will be to keep the leading position of ALLIANZ-TIRIAC in the Romanian market. We will continue to increase our financial strength by maintaining a healthy balance between profitability and the growth dynamics. As a company we have done well during the crisis and kept our promises towards our customers by following such a strategy and we will continue on this path.
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The impact of the economic crisis has materialized in the stagnation, for the first time in many years, of the volume of written insurance premiums. For a market that is at its beginning, stagnation is not the most beneficial thing, but it seems that in 2010 the prospects are not cheerful either.
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AEGON's market objectives for 2009 had in center the building of distribution partnerships. The principles were and are: quality, efficiency and faith in "win-win-win", not quantity. Therefore, my comment addresses this context from a higher level of perspective ("zoom out").
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The perspectives of the brokerage market are, in my point of view, extremely positive. Taking into account the evolution in 2009, when the brokerage market registered an increase, both in volume and as a share of insurance premiums, I consider that we will also register a growth in 2010.
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Insurers must focus on educating the customer, in terms of life insurance as a very useful savings and protection tool in times of economic crisis. Our clients understand that having life insurance is an effective way to provide shelter for themselves in case of the impact of unpleasant events.
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The Romanian market remains a market too little interested with regards to insurance. That is why, in this economic context, the consumers, reaction regarding the insurance industry is still a very weak one, as the ones that are interested are not very informed in this area and do not realize to what extent they are and can be affected by lack of insurance.
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The financial crisis and its impacts on the insurance industry still remain the biggest issues for 2009/2010. Reinsurers' perspectives for profit and growth are clearly affected by the economic situation on the primary insurance side. There are higher costs of capital, capacity reductions and lower interest rates. But both commercial and private customers are generally unwilling to pay more premium for insurance products.
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The main challenge for the CEA is to ensure that the regulatory environment for European (re)insurers is not unduly affected by either short-term or long-term regulatory changes stemming from the economic crisis. The CEA is working to ensure that any changes take into account the specific characteristics of insurance and are appropriate for the industry.
The CEA is monitoring and engaging in the debates on initiatives at EU and international level to change the existing supervisory architecture and on other legislative responses to the crisis in the supervisory and the consumer protection areas.
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In our opinion, the insurance brokerage market will not decrease compared with 2008, but it will not register an increase of more than 5% in 2009. Starting 2010, provided that the national economy will start to show signs of life again, particularly through fundraising in the economic circuit, automatically the insurance market, namely that of insurance brokers, will also resume its upward course.
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I think that, for the insurance market, the third quarter of 2009 was the highest point and that starting the fourth quarter we will start seeing business growths again. It is true that in the first quarter the market had a 4% evolution, but this was due to increased premiums on the mandatory MTPL segment and on the Motor Hull segment; therefore, it was an increase in volume of premiums, and not in number of insurance policies or of customers.
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The most important lesson, that of the imperative of organizing business based on profitability criteria, and of lack of major concessions to the actuarial principles, was already learned - that is, in fact, one of the few positive effects of the crisis with which the Romanian sector of general insurance is still confronting.
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Travel insurance has actually proven to be a necessity for people who travel outside Romania and this can be seen by the volume of GWP registered by RAI in the first 6 months, which remained the same compared with the similar period of 2008 - RON 5 million (under the circumstances in which the travel market recorded a decline of 20% on the external tourism segment, according to statistics drawn by official representatives of travel agencies).
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In 2009, we can forget about double digits growth that the Romanian insurance market experienced recently.
On the other hand, on the long term, the Romanian insurance market has a very high potential. This is because Romania is one of the largest central European countries, but the least penetrated with insurance (measured either as GWP/inhabitant or GWP/GDP). Alas, people will be less and less focused on fast consuming and becoming more interested in securing their life standards long-term.
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Mihail TECAU, President of the Executive Board, BCR Asigurari VIG
Nic de MAESSCHALCK, Director, BIPAR
Michaela KOLLER, General Director, CEA - European Insurance and Reinsurance Federation
Shashi GOKARN, President, INTERLINK Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers
Silvia SIRB, CEO, AEGON Asigurari de Viata
Angela TONCESCU, President, Insurance Supervisory Commission
Rangam BIR, CEO, ALLIANZ-TIRIAC Asigurari
Alexandru APOSTOL, General Director, MAXYGO BROKER DE ASIGURARE
Bogdan ANDRIESCU, President, UNSICAR
Florina VIZINTEANU, President of the Board, BCR Asigurari de Viata
Ileana HORVATH, President of the Board, UNIQA Asigurari
Viorel VASILE, Managing Partner, SAFETY Broker
Antonio SOUVANNASOUCK, Managing Partner, ASIGEST
Mesut YETISKUL si Radu MANOLIU, , CREDIT EUROPE Asigurari
Iuliana HAMPU, General Manager, RAI Insurance
Marie KOVAROVA, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, GENERALI Asigurari