Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.12
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
Last year cannot be called very successful for the Azerbaijani insurance market, the chairman of the board Bashak-İnam Sigorta Shirketi OJSC Orhan Hasanov told Trend Jan.12.
He said that the reason for this in the first place was because of the restrictions on consumer lending imposed by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).
In late 2013, the Central Bank asked the banks to tighten control over the issuance of consumer loans. The regulator sent a letter to the banks operating in the country with an injunction to stop issuing loans without submitting certificate of employment by a borrower. In addition, lending conditions to purchase a car have been tightened and according to experts, that is due to the deterioration of the quality of the portfolio of the banking sector for this type of lending.
"Last year, the insurance sector faced difficulties due to limitations in consumer lending," he said. "Tightening of lending conditions for the purchase of the car led to the regression of CASCO insurance market. Despite the fact that we were able to compensate for these losses by other types of insurance, the restriction of consumer loans had its negative impact on the insurance sector."
Speaking about the results of the insurance sphere, the head of the board of the OJSC also named the types of insurance that were mostly in demand in Azerbaijan in 2014.
"In 2014, health and car insurance, property insurance, life insurance, insurance against fire were the most popular types of insurance among the population," said Hasanov. "As for our company, the most popular types are car insurance and insurance against fire."
In January-November 2014, charges of insurance companies in Azerbaijan amounted to 382.8 million AZN with payments of 143.5 million AZN. Of the total fees, the life insurance accounted for 24 percent, or 91.8 million AZN. Payments on life-insurance for the period amounted to 18.7 percent of the total volume (26.9 million AZN).
The official exchange rate for January 12 is 0.7844 AZN / USD.
For other popular types of insurance, the indexes are as follows: charges on property insurance for the same period amounted to 126 million AZN (32.9 percent of total fees), payments - 36.8 million AZN (25.6 percent), fees for motor insurance - 100.2 million AZN (26.2 percent), payments - 53.6 million AZN (37.4 percent), charges for health insurance - 61.3 million AZN (16 percent), payments - 44.2 million AZN (30.8 percent), charges for fire insurance - 30.4 million AZN (7.9 percent), payments - 7.3 million AZN (5.1 percent).
There are 27 insurance and 1 reinsurance company in Azerbaijan. By the end of 2014, the growth of the insurance market is expected to reach 6-8 percent.
Bashak-Inam Sigorta Shirketi has been operating in the insurance market of the country since 1996. It renders 31 types of insurance services. By the end of 2014, the company's insurance fees totaled 2.8 million AZN. During the mentioned period, the company has made insurance payments in the amount of 1.2 million AZN.
Some 19.95 percent of its shares are owned by Zamin Bank, 48 percent account for individuals, 17 percent are owned by Groupama Sigorta A.S. (a Turkish subsidiary of one of the largest insurance companies in Europe Groupama), 8.5 percent by Turanbank, 6 percent - AzerTurkBank and less than 1 percent accounts for the non-bank credit organization Aqrarkredit.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli
