Newspaper Insurer Press Issue no 3 (11-25 February 2009) with an accent put on the highlights, hot topics and comments

Happy new returns and all the best!

Under the regular heading «Between two issues» on page 2 a place is given to the news from the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), and we give details about the draft for amendment and supplement of the Insurance code and the proposal, laid therein, for the Health Insurance companies to become insurers. What was the reaction  Association of Licensed Voluntary Health Insurance Companies ALVHIC you can read in our column „Reaction” /page 2/.

On the same page we publish the information that some companies, involved in  the insurance and social security have been admitted to membership in the Prof. Dr. Veleslav Gavriiski Foundation. Our newspaper, «Insurance Press», is one of the new members.

Here we announce the news that as from 1 March 2009 UNIQA has a new management team. Todor Kazandzhiev is the new CEO of the Insurance Company (IC) UNIQA AD, Member of the Board of UNIQA Life AD, and Claudia Rosenak, Member of the Board of IC UNIQA AD and UNIQA Life AD.

There is an interesting announcement in the column Forthcoming – about the conference, hosted by Committee of European Security Regulators (CESR.) - Preparing for the future: where to now for regulation in the field of securities?.

On page 3 you can find the interview with Todor Serafimov, Deputy Head, Motor Insurance, DZI Total Insurance AD.  Mr Serafimov is expecting serious changes in the principle of insurance policy settlements, especially in the settlement of Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) under MTPL insurance and Autocasco, derived from the amendments in the legislative act. He emphasized that the new system in DZI would provide more precise evaluation of the damages and flexible management of the settlement process as a whole.

On page 4, in the column Cover Story Yoanna Stephanova explores the role of the human factor, which is able both to save certain company from financial collapse and to sink it to the deepest bottom. As we know, the human resources are the main equity of a company. What are the measures, undertaken by the insurance companies to motivate their employees and to make these employees to assume the company’s goals as their own goals, striving to achieve them?

Here are the opinions of some of the leading insurers:

Konstantin Velev, Member of the Board, Generali Bulgaria Holding AD: „Sometimes the kind word and encouragement may serve better the purpose than the rise in salary”,

Plamen Yalamov, Member of the Board and CEO, Joint Stock Insurance Company Allianz Bulgaria:  „The good terms with people are building the basis of a good team ”,

 Stephan Sofianski, Chair of the Board and CEO, Insurance and Reinsurance company Lev Ins AD: We never refused support to our employees /page 14/ and

 Ivan Ivanov, Member of the Board and Deputy CEO, Joint Stock Insurance Company Bulstrad: „People are our equity. The feeling of being party to some big company  is a very serious motivation” /page 6/

On page 5 we carry the material with heading  „Allianz noted decelerated growth in the Central and Eastern European countries”

On February 3, 2009, Allianz SE held a press briefing in Warsaw about the global economic crisis and its impact on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Д Dr. Michael Heise, Chief Economist of the Allianz Group, and Klaus Junker, Regional CEO of Allianz New Europe, presented the development of the countries during the financial crisis as well as Allianz' activities as a trusted partner for long-term solutions in the region.

On pages 7 and 14 in the column Forum, we publish the conversation with Snezhana Kostova, Chair, Bulgarian Actuarial Society, in connection with the seminar „Professionalism and professional standards”.

Mrs Kostova answered questions about the actuary’s responsibilities, the professional ethics and standards, the enhanced requirements and the interest of the young people in the actuary’s profession.

In this connection is the material on page 8, headed  «The market dictates the prices, but which market?» and  «Motor Insurance Pricing» (continuation from issue No 1/2009)

At the seminar seminar   «Motor Insurance Pricing – science, art or just a business» the lecturer Georgy Matov, Certified Actuary, was dwelling on the conception for different management approach to the different target groups of clients. It is important to understand the essence of the insurance process or the so called underwriting.

On pages 9 and 20 Slavimir Genchev and Petar Andassarov have conversation with Matija Šenk, President of the Management Board and CEO, KD Life, plc, Slovenia. Mr. Šenk discovered the reason for visiting our country – to strengthen the structures of the Group in Bulgaria, and announced their decision to open new branches in all European Union countries, where such conditions are present. He thinks that Bulgarian market offers good prospects in the future and the Group is planning to make more investments here. The branch network will be developed in parallel with the range of products.

„We are calling our business „the The Three I’s Model – Information, Innovation and Implementation. Our goal is to understand the needs of our client – the needs of today, and the needs of tomorrow. Together with the sales we are collecting information.” -  Matija Šenk shared his „success recipe”.

On pages 10 and 19 we publish a material about the conference  „ Crisis Hieroglyph Reads Also Opportunity”. The heading is „THE OPTIMISM OF THE GOVERNORS DOES NOT GET IN LINE WITH THE ESTIMATIONS AND PROGNOSES OF THE SCIENCE AND THE FINANCIAL EXPERTS.”

The crisis, originating from the financial markets, is moving to the real economic.

What is the real financial situation in Bulgaria and what would be the impact of the crisis on the financial institutions, offering services to the Bulgarian client, and therefore what could be done to protects the clients’ funds.

The conference was officially opened by the Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski and the chairman of the Financial Supervision Commission Apostol Apostolov.

The delivered lectures and  the conducted discussions made clear that the oprimism of the official institutions of the Bulgarian government in the person of the Ministry of Finances and FSC  greatly mismatch with the real picture, described by the macroecomists from the Bulgarian  Academy of Science  and by the international and Bulgarian financial experts

The most optimistic prognosis forebode that  the situation in Bulgaria would normalize in 5 years.

On page 11 we examine closely the challenges of MTPL insurance, discussed the last November (2008) at the forum with international participation with theme «Republic of Bulgaria – member-country of the European Union – the challenges of Motor Third Party Liability (MTPL) Insurance issues, and has been organized by the National Bureau of Bulgarian Motor Insurers (NBBMI), the Guarantee Fund (GF) and Bulgarian Insurers Association (BIA). The seminar is held every year, before the start of the campaign. In this issue we publish the abstract of the lecture of Tsvetanka Krumova. Member of the Board and CEO, Joint Stock Insurance Company Armeets, and the lecture of D lawyer Diana Dimitrova from the Lawyers Association  „Antoaneta Domolarova, Roza Gradinarova and partners” with theme „Motor Third Party Liability (MTPL) insurance policy claim settlement  – current legislation issues” /page 15/

On pages 123 and 13. We present you Stepan Popelka, Chair of the Board, Generali Bulgaria Holding AD. Mr. Popelka emphasized that the main goal for FY 2009 ids the fast rise in profitability, and the long-term goals are to establish the Group as continuously developing and profitable, well known with its stability, efficiency and devotion to clients. The specific know-how, which is being received from the mother-company Generali, is the sharing of best practices of the companies of the Group Europe-wide.

On page 16 we take the pleasure to announce you that Roumen Yanchev – CEO and Chair of the Board, Joint Stock Insurance Company Bulstrad, was elected for Mr. Economy 2008. On 29 January 2009, at the metropolitan hotel Sheraton, was held the consecutive edition of the National competition “Mister/Missis Economy”, organized by the “Economy” Magazine and the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria. In the category contribution to the development of the Bulgarian non-banking sector 2008 the award, the statuette “Fisherman and the gold fish”, went for the second time to Rumen Yanchev, Chairman of the Management Board and Executive Director of Bulstrad. He also won the Mr Economy 2005 award. In this occasion Mr. Yanchev shared: “The most important for me is that the performance of the insurers did not stay unnoticed”.

On pages 17 and 21, in the column  Forum, we publish the continuation of speech delivered by

Stephan Stoilkov, Head of Department “Regulation Policy and Analyses”, Financial Supervision Commission, before the Seventh National Conference with international participation: «Social Security and Insurance in Bulgaria under the conditions of eurointegration: challenges before the yet continuing adaptation»

On page 18 we carry the overview of the previous issue, in English.

On page 21 is our regular column In the world where you can read the following materials, published on the website www. zastrahovatel.com:

·          Crisis helps Hannover Re 2009 outlook;

·          Eurins Insurance Group entered the Turkish insurance market;

·          Standard & Poor's increased the ratings for Polish Re;

·          AIG demanded additional bail out from the Barack Obama’s government;

·          Swiss Life declared to have no need of financial cash injections

We finish our overview with the presentation of

Yordanka Hristova, CEO, Insurance Company Euroins AD. /Page 22/

Mrs Hristova shared that the team of Euroins is a large and united family. She evaluated the performance of the company in FY 2008 this way: „Since its establishment our company has been marking growth on yy basis, both in the premium income and the company’s market share. 2008 was a little bit different because of the expansion of the brand Euroins, go beyond the borders of the country – a process (if I go by the results achieved in Romania and Macedonia for a very short time) which I would assess as a very successful start of our international activity. The elapsed year was difficult, and we must consider the external factors which unavoidably affected our business.”

In 2008 Euroins generated premium incomes of BGN 82.2 million (i.e. registering annual growth of 23,5%), reads the preliminary report of the company. The company reported a negative FY2008 result of BGN 14.2 million, derived from the impact such operators as the macroeconomic environment, and the regulatory changes as well.

In conclusion Mrs Hristova emphasized:„My personal ambitions are related only with the prosperity of the company... The goals we set are fully reachable and we must to work hard to be able to achieve them.”

Selection: Vania Petrova

Translation: Albena Dimitrova