Uniqa president: Only now are we starting to feel the crisis

Insurers will start to feel the pinch of the crisis this autumn, because this is the time when most policies closed last year expire, and some of them will not be renewed as a result of the slump in clients’ purchasing power, with the biggest decline to be recorded by the comprehensive insurance for cars (Casco). “We are only now starting to experience the crisis in terms of the decline in the number of new clients, because many policies expire. So far we have recorded declines only on the leasing segment, but now they have started to also occur on the corporate and retail segments,” said Ileana Horvath, president of Uniqa Asigurari (formerly Unita), No. 6 on the market, with almost 140 million euros in turnover last year. Whilst in the first half of the year the company recorded a 1% decline in comprehensive insurance sales (gross underwritten premiums) against the similar time in 2008, the decline deepened to 3%, whilst in previous years insurers used to report the biggest rises on this segment. Moreover, alongside the decline in premiums comes a rapid rise in claim settlements, which has been occurring across the entire insurance market, leaving insurers without cash. In Uniqa’s case, the average claim settled for comprehensive auto insurance climbed from 4,100 RON last year to 5,200 RON (over 1,200 euros) at present, whilst for RCA policies (compulsory auto liability insurance), the average value of a claim settlement jumped from 4,800 RON in 2008 to 5,500 RON (1,300 euros).