Vienna Insurance Austrian group, which controls Omniasig, Asirom, BCR Asigurări and BCR Asigurări de Viață companies domestically, last year reported gross income worth 28.5m euros from Romanian operations, up 18% from 2009.
The increase is mainly due to falling settled claims and lower operating expenses. The companies VIG holds in Romania in 2010 paid damages worth 325m euros, 16% less than a year before. Claims accounted for 62% in gross underwritten premiums.
“The claims rate fell by 4.9% last year in Romania reflecting
the rising tariffs for car policies, the introduction of
deductibles and the exchange rate impact,” reads Austrian group’s
annual report.
Operating expenses fell by 11% and reached 152m euros. However,
their weight in total underwritten premiums slightly increased to
around 29% on the portfolio cleanup operations.
The Austrian group underwrote gross premiums worth 528m euros last year, down 13% year-on-year as a result of the lower sales of car policies. The decline tops the 5.7% slump the insurance market posted in 2010. However, VIG is still the biggest player in the Romanian insurance industry.