The insurance market returned on growth in 2015 and peaked last six years

The insurance market in Romania has reversed the downward trend in the period of 2013 - 2014 and end of 2015 with a volume of gross written premiums increased by 8.2%, compared to the previous year. The insurance system is approaching the historical peak reached in 2008, just before the economy went into recession, in spite of termination of one of the most important market players.

Market recovery  has supported the consolidation of a trend of improvements in key health indicators of the insurance system: on the matter of “auto liability insurance"(Class X), the loss ratio fell to 86% in 2015, while acquisition and administrative expenses ratio decreased to 36.54%, so the combined ratio (loss ratio plus expenses ratio) fell to 122.5% last year.

General insurance market has approached the threshold of 7 billion lei it had reached and exceeded temporarily in 2008-2009, accumulating an increase of about 7.6% compared to 2014. A more consistent increase of 10.8% has registered the life insurance market, which has recovered to over 1.8 billion lei after the fall suffered in 2013-2014 due to redemptions policies.

At the end of 2015 insurance market consisted of 35 companies, including 20 in the general insurance sector, 8 in the life insurance sector, and 7 with mixed portfolio.

Insurance brokers are the main distribution channel of insurance products, with a share that climbed to almost 60% in 2015. In the general insurance sector the intermediation of brokers has now passed 70%, while the share of life insurance is only 7%.