AIG Life in profit for the first time

AIG Life Insurance company, the life insurance division of US AIG, registered profits in excess of 18 billion ROL ($545,000) in the first half of this year. This comes after last year’s reported losses, which stood at 4.5 billion ROL ($136,000).
“We are satisfied with the profit we have derived for the first time in Romania, which we hadn’t anticipated would appear so early. The explanation is the very high persistence of contracts, standing at more than 90%,” said Theodor Alexandrescu, the company’s marketing and sales manager. Persistence means the number of insurance contracts renewed as a proportion of previously signed contracts.
The volume of premiums underwritten reached 370 billion ROL ($11.2 million), almost 57% higher in ROL in comparison to the first half of last year, while total revenues posted by AIG Life came to 420 billion ROL in the first half, almost 60% higher.
For the 2003 financial year, the company reported gross premiums underwritten worth 520 billion ROL ($15.7 million). Almost two thirds of these resulted from survival insurance contracts and mixed life insurance contracts.
In 2003, the insurance industry increased by 17% in terms of the number of contracts concluded, the main positive influence being exerted by life insurance. The total number of life insurance contracts concluded during 2003 (1,200,000) was 37% higher in comparison to the number of contracts sealed during the previous year.
In 2003, AIG Life held an 8.2% share of the life insurance market of Romania.
The biggest rivals of AIG Life on the life insurance market are ING Nederlanden, Asirom, Aviva, Generali, Sara Merkur, Unita and Allianz-Tiriac.