December 5 (SeeNews) - Serbia's central bank, NBS, said on Monday that state-owned Dunav Osiguranje [BEL:DNOS] remained the country's top insurer by premium income in the third quarter of 2016, although it saw its market share narrow by one percentage point year-on-year, to 26.6%.
Dunav Osiguranje was followed by Generali and DDOR Novi Sad, which saw their shares of total premium income in the period remain unchanged compared with the third quarter of 2015 at 22.8% and 12%, respectively, NBS said.
The combined total premium income of Serbian insurance companies in the third quarter rose 10% year-on-year, reaching 66.7 billion dinars ($411.1 million/366.2 million euro).
Non-life insurance made up 76.8% of total premium income of Serbian insurers in the third quarter, down from 78.5% in the like period of 2015. Life insurance accounted for 23.2%, up from 21.5% last year as a result of the 18% nominal growth of premiums.
The premium income of the non-life insurance segment rose 7.6% year-on-year in July-September, with motor third party liability (MTPL) insurance premiums up 4.8%, premiums for accident insurance rising 5.4%, and premiums for full coverage motor vehicle insurance (casco) growing 11.9%.
The share of voluntary health insurance premiums increased to 2.7% in the third quarter of 2016 from 2.1% a year earlier on the back of a nominal growth in premiums of 44.7%.
The total assets of insurers active in Serbia grew 16.9% on the year to 212.5 billion dinars at end-September.
The breakdown by ownership shows that of the 23 insurers, 17 were in majority foreign ownership.