Insurers in Romania pay damages of 3 mln euros daily

Insurers in Romania pay, on a daily basis, damages worth millions of euros, on an insurance market that has reached 5.43 billion lei, Adrian Marin, president of the National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies in Romania (UNSAR) told specialized conference on Thursday. 

"The statistics show that, since 2001 and up to 2017, there are 40,000 people killed in traffic accidents in Romania, given that in the 1977 earthquake 1,578 people died. So it is important to work with all stakeholders. There are things that need to improve in our country. Even if this industry is so blamed, we manage to pay 3 million euros a day in damages in Romania, as insurance companies. We are talking about 5.4 billion lei, in the first half of 2019, a market that is growing by 7.8pct compared to the similar period of 2018. Mandatory car insurance policies represent 72pct of the total insurance market," said Marin. 

According to the data presented by the UNSAR representative, in the mandatory car insurance segment, the increase in the subscribed premiums was 4.8pct in the first half of the year, compared to the same period of 2018, while on the optional car insurance segment there was a 10.9pct leap compared to the reference period. The damages paid also increased faster than the subscribed gross premiums, on the mandatory car insurance segment by 14.7pct - from 1.359 billion lei to 1.559 billion lei, and the damage rate increased from 78pct to 83.8pct. 

In addition, on the optional car insurance segment, the damages increased by 18.5pct, between January and June 2019, up to 799 million lei, from 674 million lei reported in the first half of the previous year. The damages rate in Romania has increased this year from 77.6pct to 86.4pct, while on this line the companies administer about one million contracts. 

The Romanian Car Insurance Agency - BAAR and the Institute of Financial Studies - ISF organized on Thursday the conference on "Car insurance and traffic safety in the digital age".