Since its beginning in 2008, the economic crisis has taken a toll on insurers, trimming their sales and downsizing their client portfolio.
Seven of the top ten insurers reduced staff by up to one fifth and there were few companies that hired more people to expand their business.
According to the country’s statistics institute INS, some 4,000 employees in the insurance sector quit their jobs or were laid off over the past four years.
At the end of 2012, the insurance and private pension system employed about 14,300 people, from 18,500 in December 2008.
The number of employees that left the insurance system represents 8% of the system’s overall staff.
Asirom, the fifth largest insurer in Romania, controlled by Austria’s Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), had 1,300 employees last year. The group carried out an ample restructuring process. Omniasig, another local insurer controlled by VIG, downsized its staff by about 15% last year to approximately 2,240 employees.
Omniasig resulted from the merger between older insurer Omniasig and BCR Asigurari. The latter two underwent a harsh restructuring process before merger: one in six employees was laid off and 125 of their 350 offices were closed. Reorganization continued after merger and 45 offices have been shut down over the past year.
Other insurers which restructured their business are Generali, Carpatica and Allianz-Tiriac. Generali employed an average of 800 people last year and Allianz-Tiriac some 1,740 people.
Astra, the leader of the local insurance market by revenues from underwritten premiums, downsized its staff by 17% in 2012 to 1,460 employees.
The Romanian insurance industry has registered cumulated loss of 1.7 billion lei (EUR0.38 billion) over the past years. In 2012 alone, insurers’ aggregate loss amounted to RON322 million. (EUR1=RON4.4463)