Albanian Insurers' 9-mo Gross Premium Income Rises 20% to 5.4 Bln Leks (44 Mln Euro)

Gross premiums from non-life insurance rose by 20% to 5.12 billion leks in the nine-month period, the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority said in its monthly report. The number of non-life insurance policies increased by 24% on the year to 467,581.

Gross premiums from life insurance totalled 381 million leks through September, 33% higher on the year. The number of life insurance policies rose by 45% to 40,445.

Albania's 10 insurers paid 1.07 billion leks on claims in the first nine months, up by 6.79% on the year. The number of claims increased by 441 to 7,004, of which only 50 were for life insurance. Only three companies offer life insurance services in Albania.

Sigal ranked first in the life insurance segment with a market share of 39%. The company also ranked first in the non-life segment with a market share of 26%. In the same period last year Sigal (www.sigal.com.al) had a 40% share of the life insurance segment and 27% of the non-life insurance segment. In December Austrian insurer UNIQA bought 46% of Sigal, with an option to become a majority shareholder in 2010.

State-owned INSIG, expected to be privatised by the year’s end, ranked second in the life insurance segment. INSIG had a 33% market share in January-September, down from 35% in the same period a year ago. INSIG ranked second in the non-life insurance segment with a market share of 17.61%, slightly down from the 17.73% a year earlier.

(1 euro = 123.6676 Albanian leks)