About 600 employees of Allianz-Tiriac, Omniasig, Asirom, BCR Asigurari and Generali were laid off in 2011 or left without having been replaced. The five companies had 6,770 employees left in December.
BCR Asigurari shed the highest number of jobs, so that it had 880 employees left by the end of December, down about 20% on 2010, after its majority shareholder, Austrian insurer Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), conducted local operations streamlining program.
Omniasig and Asirom, also controlled by VIG, laid off 2.5% and 6.5% of their staff. The number of the employees of the second leading insurer on the market, Allianz-Tiriac fell by 7.5% to 1,960 people, while Italian-held Generali had 945 employees left by December, that is 6.5% fewer.
The revenue of the insurance companies went down 10% during the crisis, as the gross written general and life insurance premiums reached 7.9 billion lei (EUR1.8 billion) in 2011.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu