Romanian insurers' gross written premiums at 11.5 bln lei in 2020

Romanian insurers' gross written premiums amounted to approximately 11.5 billion lei in 2020, roughly 4.6 percent up from the previous year, the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) announced on Thursday. According to the cited source, the Romanian insurance market remained oriented towards the general insurance activity, which accounted for 81 percent of the total gross premiums written by ASF authorized and regulated insurers. "The increase in 2020 in the share of general insurance gross written premiums (GWP) of the market's total GWP volume compared to 2019 occurred against the background of an increase in general insurance GWP (+ 6.3 percent), accompanied by a slight decrease in the value of life insurance written premiums (-1.6 percent)," the report states. The document points out that car insurance, including Class A3 (insurance for land and non-rail means of transport) and Class A10 (motor third party liability insurance, including carrier's liability), remained dominant on the non-life market, at 71 percent of the total gross premiums written for non-life insurance, and 57 percent of total gross premiums written by insurance companies in 2020. Although the life insurance segment registered a slight decrease from the previous year, compared to 2016 - 2018 the volume of gross written premiums remained higher, exceeding 2.2 billion lei in 2020, on the back of a 1.6 percent increase in C1 premiums - life insurance, annuities and supplementary life insurance, which represent about 65 percent of the total life insurance premiums. Health insurance remained uptick in 2020, with written amounts in excess of 451 million lei, approximately 18 percent higher compared to the previous year; this segment's share in total gross written premiums advanced to 3.9 percent from 3.5 percent in 2019. "The current context, marked by heightened uncertainty regarding future economic developments, amplified by the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has prompted an increase in interest in guarantee insurance (class A15). Guarantee insurance gross written premiums amounted to approximately 465 million lei in 2020, 68 percent up from the previous year, thus contributing to the domestic insurance market's diversification trend," the ASF report also shows. AGERPRES (RO - author: Nicoleta Gherasi, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)