Asirom’s Board Chairwoman Mariana Diaconescu, in turn, said a 5% increase in underwritten insurance premiums is an optimistic scenario, adding forecasts for 2013 are rather prudent than optimistic.
According to Diaconescu, damage claims had a sharp evolution in 2012 and generated high costs, which were covered by shareholders, not from revenues generated by underwritten premiums. He also said that insurers should focus on building customer loyalty by increasing the quality of services.
Astra’s Board Chairman Alin Bucsa estimates a two-digit increase for 2013, between 10% and 15%, backed by higher tariffs for RCA polices and by GDP growth, as well as by a positive trend on property and health insurance segments. Bucsa said Astra eyes a two-digit growth in 2013 backed by underwritten premiums on foreign markers, adding Astra’s underwritten premiums in Hungary account for 10% of the company’s revenues in 2012 .
Romania’s general and life insurance market climbed 1.43% in the first nine months of the year to 6.17 billion (EUR1.41 billion), supported by a 1.74% increase on the general insurance segment to RON4.87 billion, according to insurance market regulator CSA. Life insurance underwritten premiums amounted to RON1.3 billion in the first nine months of 2012, up 0.3% on the year.
Romanian insurance companies’ underwritten premiums in other European Union member states rose 27.1% on the year to RON232 million in the first nine months of 2012, according to CSA data.
As per a norm approved recently by CSA, insurers in Romania will rethink mandatory car insurance (RCA) policy prices so as to make sure that revenues estimated for an interval of 12 months will cover risks, costs and their profit margin.
According to previous regulations, insurers which sold RCA policies had to set prices yearly considering each category of vehicles to ensure they can meet their obligations, build technical reserves, pay contributions to funds and cover acquisition and administration costs.
In 2011, underwritten premiums on the RCA segment amounted to about RON2 billion and accounted for one quarter of revenues in the general and life insurance industry. (EUR1=RON4.3606)