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Romania’s Life Insurance Market To Make Comeback Six Months After Economic Recovery

Romania’s life insurance market will take about five or six months to recover after the country’s economy recovers, Cornelia Coman, vice-president of the National Union of Insurers in Romania, said in a press release Sunday.
Romania’s Life Insurance Market To Make Comeback Six Months After Economic Recovery
25 apr. 2010, 16:21, English

The life insurance market will enter a recovery period toward the end of this year after the fall it took in 2009, but effects will be visible as of 2011, she said.

„Even if the economy recovers, it will take a while for people to resume their behavior from before the crisis, in terms of consumption and saving. The lag between economic recovery and the recovery of the life insurance market will be of five or six months, and it will be prompted by increased consumer confidence in the safety of the future,” Coman said in the press release.

The head of the insurers’ association, Cristian Constantinescu, said this year will not bring a significant volume of new business in insurance, adding insurers should rethink their business strategies in 2010.

He said that unless a clearer change becomes apparent in underwritings, the evolution of the auto segment, which accounts for over 60% of underwritings in the insurance industry, will continue to widen insurers’ deficits considering damage claims are a few times more frequent in Romania than in other European countries.

Over 40 insurance companies and nearly 500 insurance brokers operate the Romanian market which stood at 8.8 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.1285) in 2009, down 1.1% from 2008.