“Selling insurance products through banks is a successful distribution channel in many countries in Europe and North America. We believe it will also be successful in Romania sometime in the future. For example, 42% of the revenues registered by a bank in the United States are generated by insurance sales and long-term savings program sales,” said Alexandrescu at a conference on insurance organized by newspaper Ziarul Financiar.
He added that through bancassurance banks may diversify their revenue sources, eliminate any possible fluctuations in deposits and loans, as well as diversify and customize their portfolio.
In Poland, bancassurance contributed to the development of the life insurance market, said Alexandrescu.
“The Romanian bank system has thousands of subsidiaries with millions of clients that need insurance. This segment has a great potential, but Romania doesn’t pay much attention to it,” highlighted Alexandrescu.
The local general and life insurance market fell 6.4% last year to 8.31 billion lei (about EUR1.9 billion).
On the general insurance segment, underwritten premiums dropped 8.3% to RON6.64 billion, while the life insurance market climbed 2.3% to RON1.67 billion.
BCR Asigurari de Viata, Aegon Asigurari de Viata and ING Asigurari de Viata are among insurers which signed bancassurance partnerships with banks. (EUR1=RON4.3308)