Battle over $130m auto liability insurance market

The battle over the $130m market of auto liability insurance, which started at the end of last week when the Insurance Supervision Commission (CSA) authorised 13 companies to sell this type of policies, is likely to become very fierce.

The 30% price raise for the insurance policies, the great market potential due to the low share (circa 35-40%) of the insured vehicles, but also the fact that this may be the last year when auto liability policies are sold for a full calendar year have sparked tension on the market.

The Insurance Supervision Commission has authorised 13 of the 16 insurers that had submitted the necessary documentation. The licensed companies are Asirom, Omniasig, Asitrans, SAR Transilvania, Agras, Unita, Interamerican, Allianz-Tiriac, Ardaf, Asiban, Ceccar-Romas, Astra and Asirag.

AGI Romania and Atlassib were rejected for having submitted incomplete documentation. Astra and Asirag had not completed their documentation by Friday, either, so that the CSA originally announced only 11 companies had been licensed. However, CSA did include the above-mentioned two companies on the list of authorised insurers on Saturday.

“We were not anxious about not getting the licence. This was a documentation issue,” said Dan Domnitanu, vice-president of Astra. Auto liability insurance accounts for one third of the company’s revenues. Astra is held by Nova Trade group. Astra controls about 10-11% of the auto liability market, competing against Omniasig (which has a similar market share). Both companies rank behind Asirom (with 43-45% of the market). Unita, Alianz-Tiriac and Ardaf also hold more than 5% of the market.

According to AGI Romania general manager Radu Mustatea, the company’s not getting the CSA licence yet “does not constitute a problem.”

“We shall complete the required documentation, and CSA will look at it again. We can always get the authorisation later. To us, auto liability insurance accounts for only 20% of the portfolio,” Mustatea said.

“As the companies get their situation straightened up, the Insurance Supervision Commission Board will meet and make the decisions, at any time or date,” said Nicolae Crisan, president of CSA. sorin.pislaru@zf.ro