Romanian insurers go shares

Over the last twelve months, the insurance companies in Romania, pressured by higher and higher reinsurance prices and by the lower risk absorption capacity of the international markets, have discovered something that has been used for a long time in the developed countries: coinsurance. “For about a year, that is since the reinsurance market has become more restrictive, the number of coinsurance contracts on the market has been going up. Such contracts had been concluded before, of course, but there were not many of them, though. The capacity of the Romanian market being limited, such alliances were needed,” Cristian Fugaciu, head of the insurance broker Marsh said.  At a first glance, all the insurers in Romania are engaged in a fierce competition. Differences last surfaced when a new professional association of insurers was established by the “dissidents” in the National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies: AIG Romania, Asirom and Omniasig. Still, the companies have begun to share the risks, whenever the risks are higher and require thorough analyses. ZF