Insurers anticipate a ‘frozen’ year, with a maximum growth of 5 pc

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

2013 will be a “frozen” year for the market of general and life insurances, with an increase rate of 3-5 pc driven by the higher prices of RCA policies and the more significant contribution of housing and health insurances, the president of the Directorate of Omniasig, Mihai Tecau said during a press conference on insurance topics, quoted by Mediafax.Attending the event, the president of the Directorate of Asirom, Mariana Diaconescu mentioned that a 5 pc advance of subscriptions is an optimistic scenario. “The forecasts for this year are not very optimistic, rather prudent. I appreciate a 5 pc growth as very optimistic. I believe that the important thing this year is to stabilise the level of costs, which will have as effect the balancing of accounting sheets,” she explained. In 2012, compensation payments had an abrupt evolution and generated high costs, which were covered by shareholders, and not from the incomes generated by subscribed premiums, Diaconescu explained. She added that, this year, for Asirom and for the other major insurers, the main target will be increasing the loyalty of customers by improving the quality of services.The representative of Astra, Alin Bucsa voiced his optimism and anticipated for 2013 a two-digit growth between 10 and 15 pc. Bucsa added that 2012 will end better than shown by the results at 9 months, due to optimistic figures in the last quarter of the previous year.During the same event, the CEO of Safety Broker de Asigurare, Viorel Vasile announced that the premium fee of RCA policies will stagnate or will increase by 5 pc at most in 2013, after three years when prices remained unchanged. He described as “totally aberrant” the situation regarding the average claim paid by insurers, which oscillates between RON 4,000 and 10,000.

IMF is interested by the mega-supervisor planned by the government

The representatives of insurers and insurance brokers in Romania had the occasion to tell the International Monetary Fund their opinion about the founding of the Financial Supervisory Authority. UNSICAR and UNSAR, the two unions that represent the professionals of the local insurance market, made no secret of their opposition to the creation of a supervisory mega-structure, especially on such short notice as announced by the government, just three months. The IMF experts that came to Bucharest to negotiate the signing of a new accord with Romania listened to the insurers, found they are right especially with regard to authorities rushing the founding of the new structure, and advised them to take their problems to the organisations that represent them at European scale.