November 17 (SeeNews) - The premium income of the 20 general insurers operating in Bulgaria in the first nine months of 2009 fell by 0.2% on the year to 1.05 billion levs ($800.1 million/536.7 million euro), the country's financial regulator said on Tuesday.
Bulgaria's general insurance market is dominated by car insurance policies, which generated 70.4% of total premiums in the nine months through September, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) said in a statement.
The combined premium income of Bulgaria's 17 life insurers decreased by15.2% on the year to 159.3 million levs through September. Life insurance policies generated 74.5% of the segment's total premium income.
The combined technical profit of general insurers in the nine-month period rose to 12.195 million levs from 9.938 million levs a year ago. Life insurers had a combined net profit of 13.9 million levs, compared to 4.0 million levs in the year-ago period. The technical profit or loss of insurance companies is the financial result of their core activity.
General insurers had combined assets of 1.76 billion levs at the end of September, up 16.9% on the year, and the combined assets of the life insurers were 7.6% higher on the year reaching 946.3 million levs.
Bulgarian voluntary health insurers reported gross premium income of 30.1 million levs in the first nine months of 2009, up 29/7% on the year. They had a combined technical profit of 1.1 million levs and combined assets of 67.6 million levs, 22.8% higher year-on-year. There were 17 voluntary health insurers active in the country at the end of September.
The insurance market in Bulgaria has been growing steadily in recent years, mainly due to strong income from mandatory insurance policies such as third party liability for motor vehicles. However, the premium income per capita is still half the average of central and eastern Europe.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)