February 21 (SeeNews) - Romanian life insurer NN Asigurari de Viata said on Tuesday its gross underwritten premiums increased by 5.2% last year, reaching 661.7 million lei ($155 million/146 million euro).
Health insurance policies, the latest product launched by NN on the Romanian market in April 2016, generated over 21% of total sales, the company said in a press release.
"2016 was a great year for our business in the context of Romania's record economic growth in the post-crisis period, supported by stimulative monetary and fiscal policies," general manager Marius Popescu said.
The average life premium reached 1,815 lei in 2016, up 4.1% on 2015. NN Asigurari de Viata' s gross profit rose to 29.8 million lei in 2016, up 31.1% year-on-year.
The insurer ended 2016 with assets worth 3.26 billion lei in Romania, up 7.7% on 2015.
NN's voluntary pensions fund net assets totalled 754 million lei at end-2016, up 21.9% on the year, with a market share of 50.2% on the local market, the company said. Some 176,290 Romanians contributed in 2016 to the voluntary pension fund managed by NN, up 7.4% year-on-year.
NN's mandatory pension fund's net assets increased by 26% in 2016, to 11.5 billion lei. NN Pensii held a share of 36.6% of the Romanian mandatory pensions market as of end-2016. Some 1.92 million Romanians contributed to the mandatory pension fund managed by NN, representing 28.2% of all participants in the mandatory private pension scheme, the company said, citing data from the country's financial supervision authority, ASF.
Accelerating wage growth and the higher number of employees in the post-crisis period resulted in an increased payroll, by more than 15% in 2016, which led to growth of average contributions, of participants' number and of the value of total assets managed by mandatory pension funds, Raluca Tintoiu, general manager of NN Pensii, said.
In April 2015, ING Asigurari de Viata changed its change its name to NN Asigurari de Viata, to indicate its affiliation to its mother group, NN - ING's insurance division. The European Commission earlier requested ING Group to separate its insurance division from its banking activities. Coorrespondingly, ING Pensii became NN Pensii, while ING Investment Management changed its name into NN Investment Partners.
(1 euro=4.5157 Romanian lei)