BCR Asigurari doubles premiums in Q1

BCR Asigurari (BCR Insurance), a member of the Banca Comerciala Romana (Romanian Commercial Bank) financial group, saw gross underwritten premiums worth 24.1 million euros in the first quarter of the year (Q1), a two-fold increase against the same period in 2005. The growth of underwriting is most likely higher than the market average growth in the first three months of 2006. The company however did not publish data on the profit seen in the first quarter. Since the beginning of the year, BCR Asigurari has been operating only on the segment of general insurance, with the life insurance segment being taken over by the company set up for this particular purpose, BCR Asigurari de Viata (BCR Life Insurance), also a member of the BCR financial group. Last year, BCR Asigurari ranked sixth in the ranking of the biggest insurance companies in Romania in terms of gross underwritten premiums, with a 6.67% market share, an increase from the 4.24% it held in 2004. Total underwriting in 2005 stood at almost 82 million euros, of which gross premiums underwritten from general insurance were worth 60.5 million euros. On the life insurance market, BCR Asigurari was fifth last year in the ranking of the biggest insurers on the market, with the volume of gross underwritten premiums seeing a four-fold increase against the 2004 financial year. ZF