Insurance market marks historic record based on competition's increase, but also system's concentration

Subscribed Gross Premiums (PBS) from Romanian insurance companies, have reached almost 4.66 billion RON during the first three months of 2022, the highest trimestrial value registered in the history of Romanian insurance market, going up by 46% from the similar period of last year, according to a press release sent by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).

Subscribed Gross Premiums related to general insurance have gone up by 53.9%, while premiums for life insurance have gone up by 16.1%. The market's engine continues to remain in the Civil Auto Liability (RCA) segment, with an increase of 10.2% of subscribed gross premiums, to up to almost 2.4 billion RON. Important increases were also registered on the health insurance segment (+28%) and CASCO insurance (12.4%), as well as insurance against fire and natural calamities (+11%).

A remarkable evolution was also registered in market competition. At the end of the first trimester of 2022, the first four insurance companies held comparable market shares of two- digit numbers. The difference between first place, which is occupied by Euroins Romania, and the fourth place, Omniasig VIG, was under 7.5 percentage points.

Through comparison, at the end of the first trimester of 2021, between the first position and the fourth position was a difference of 9 percentage points. The diversifying process is even more strictly reported to RCA insurance. For this insurance line, three companies have market shares formed of 2-digit numbers, while other companies control notable percentages, of over 7%. The first two players controlled 55.6% of the market, at the end of March 2022, while during the similar period of 2021, the top two companies had over 77%, the other players having negligible market shares.

The results for the first three months of 2022 show that the increase in subscribed premiums was based on a healthy foundation, given that the main indicators of solvency and liquidity improved. During the mentioned period, insurance companies have paid compensations of over 1.5 billion RON. The liquidity factor went up to 2.44, from 1.59 during the last trimester of 2021 and 2.35 at the end of last year. At the same time, SCR (Solvency Capital Requirement) and MCR (Minimum Capital Requirement) rates, which highlight companies' solvency in the context of the Solvency II norms, were above par to the level of the entire market, with an increase of 11% for SCR, the main solvency indicator.

ASF contributes to consolidating the integrated framework of functionality of the three sectors, which sum up over 10 million participants.AGERPRES