Newspaper Insurer Press Issue no 19

Dear readers, in the overview of the newspaper «Insurer Press» we put an accent on the highlights and hot topics news and events. We make you acquainted with the analyses and thoughts expressed by the leading insurers and also keep you informed about all that happened within the period between the last two issues of the newspaper.

We start our overview with information about the new unique book “Concise Encyclopedia of Insurance”/page 2/. It is published for a first time and in limited edition. The insurance business starts by and keep learning and mastering the professional language – the insurance terminology. This unique and only book is valuable resource for both approved and newly introduced terms and notions from the theory and the practice of the insurance business – most of them are commonly accepted by the circles of foreign experts in the field of insurance.

The easiest way to secure a copy of this book is to contact the editors’ office of the Insurance Press newspaper.

In the column Cross Point on the same page you can find the material “The Sickish Health Insurance Put To The Test Again”. Last week the capital hosted round table on the theme: „Proposals for amendment of the Health Insurance Code”.  The forum was organized by the Ministry of Health Care and the members of the parliamentary Health Care Committee from the Parliamentary Group of Political Party GERB.  The forum was attended by the representatives of all social parties, professional and patient organizations.

The Health Minister Dr. Bozhidar Nanev emphasized the need of adequate costing of the medical products and services. The amendments of the Health Insurance Code provide for the prices and the reimbursement procedures for medical care to be set by the Agency for Economic Analysis and Forecasting instead of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), because the time was ripe to make a real economic and financial analysis on medical activities, the Finance Minister Simeon Djankov explained. The measure drew strong opposition from the medical professional unions which fear the national framework agreement, outlining prices and volumes reimbursed by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), will become meaningless.

On pages 4 and 14 you can read the first interview, given by Prof. Neno Pavlov, Ph.D.  – Deputy Chairman in charge of Social Insurance Supervision Division and entitled “We will not allow any disturbance of the quality and rhythm of work in the division”.

Mr. Pavlov shared:”In such a dynamic system with extremely sensitive set of issues, both for the business and the population as a whole, featuring the pension security, there are always grounds for legal and administrative changes, imposed by the cyclic development of the markets and the innovations in the security systems. One of the priority goals that I set for myself at the very beginning, have been this to never allow any disturbance of the quality and rhythm of work in the division; to keep going the active dialog with the supervised persons and institutions with direct relevance to the policies and the organization of the supervision activity, as well as our participation in the work of the specialized structures of the European Commission”.

Mr. Pavlov answered the main questions, asked by Ileana Stoyanova, this way:

-         We will have equitable participation in the European Committees in the sphere of pension regulations;

-         I cannot accept the contention that the lost of assets is due to the bad corporate management of the companies;

-         There is a need for financial educational for the population;

-         The multifund system has adequate efficient mechanisms for protection of the pension contributions.

On page 5 we carry the Cover Story: "Motor Third Party Liability Insurance”. As announced in the previous issue of the newspaper by Emil Atanasov, Deputy Chair & Head of the Insurance Supervision Directorate, as at 11 September 2009 the range of the mandatory Motor Third Party Liability insurance of the motorists was 81.3 per cent which is translated in 578 thousand motor vehicles which are driven by their owners or users without the mandatory insurance and are not declared as off road (pull/draw up movement).

At the same time, (and also published in the previous issue) the lawyer Antoaneta Dimolarova – managing partner in the law firm Antoaneta Dimolarova, Rozalina Gradinarova and Partners, stated that lately it is observed a sharp drop of the  range of the mandatory Motor Third Party Liability insurance of the motorists. She also thinks that this problem needs some serious consideration and discussion on state of MTPL insurance market as a whole.

In this connection we publish the interview with Borislav Mihailov. CEO, president of the managing board of the Guarantee Fund, /pages 5 & 8/.  Mr. Mihailov has maintained that: «The financial stability of the Fund is beyond all doubt». According to him:

-         The issue of the MTPL  insurance range requires serious interference of the state;

-         The issued policies should cover liability for a term of one year;

-         The Road Traffic Police should immobilize  the motor vehicles with lapsed and not renewed policies;

-         The fund does not have any problems with the collection of the contributions of the insurers.

This theme continues on  page 8 , with the interview with Marin Rakovski , officer, Road Traffic Police (KAT) to the Security Police Division of the Sofia Directorate of Interior, and on  page 9, where Gergana Ivanova, Manager, Finsales EOOD Insurance  Broker tried to find the answer of the question – “Price war or European approach to the MTPL insurance market”. Mrs Ivanova considers that: The bonus-malus system has already been applied to some extent; Fast increase of the average amount of the compensation in case of insured event against bodily injury caused to third party; the expensive MTPL will make the war on the road less intense.    

 

On pages 6 & 7 we carry our column “Analyses: Insurance and Voluntary Health Insurance”. The main established conclusion is: meager results in the general (non-life) insurance and serious drop in the life insurance.

The direct non-life insurance premium income in the  period January-July 2009 (including the active reinsurance gross written premiums – GWP), has been BGN 852,256 thousand, while the GWP of the life-insurance amount to BGN 130,541  thousand.

Compared to the previous year, the growth of the non-life insurance market in the first half of this year is merely 0.5%, while the life-insurance registered a drop of (-16.5%), or a drop of (-2.1%) for the whole insurance sector.

There is no change in the Top 3 in the non-life insurance.

On the non-life insurance market leader in terms of premium income for the first half of 2009 is Bulstrad Vienna Insurance Group ZAD with its BGN 135,758,080 and market share of 15.93 per cent.

Second comes DZI-General Insurance AD, reporting BGN 121,096,964 and market share of 14.21%.

Insurance Company Lev-INS Ad keeps the third place with GWP amounting to BGN 90,847,385 and market share of 10.66%.

The picture of the Top 3 in the life insurance sector is the same too. The leader of the market is Allianz Bulgaria Life ZAD. For the first half of this year it has gathered BGN 27,190,762 of premium income and market share of 20.83%.

Second on the life insurance market of BGN 21,710,784 premium income and 16.63% market share is DZI ZAD.

Third place has been taken by the insurance company Uniqa Life AD, reporting premium income of BGN 15,182,417 and market share of 11.63%.

The realized premium income of the voluntary health insurance for the 1^st half of 2009 totals BGN 25,838 thousand, which stands for 37.5 % year-on-year growth.

 

On page 10 we public information about the Academic Partnership Agreement, signed between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and the Higher School of Insurance and Finance (VUZF).

On page 11 in the column “Theme to be continued: Insurances against Unemployment” we carry the material by Yoanna Stefanova, wittily entitled “The White Swallow”. The bank insurance leader Cardiff assures the calm and ease of the Bulgarian borrower/mortgagor.

The insurance product, offered by Cardiff to borrowers, covers also the risk of unemployment, and this made it very popular on the Bulgarian market. Probably this is the one and only “white swallow” on the insurance market in the country, and it offers to the Bulgarians who are repaying loans, some more quiet future.

On page 14 we publish the Market report of FSC, providing an overview of the non-banking financial sector for the second half of 2009. The data from this report, compared to the statistical data for this sector for the last year and a half show signs of recovery of the financial sphere in Bulgaria. The publication examines the five main aspects of the condition and development of the non-banking sector.

On pages 15 & 16 we reflect the International Conference Multifunds – Implementation and Prospects in the Pension Systems of the Central and Eastern European Countries. The conference was attended by participants from more than 20 countries. The multifunds already exist in 5 European countries – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Slovakia. Bulgaria is the next European country to adopt the multifunds system, as from the beginning of 2010.

Multifunds: Lessons from Experience – this was the title of the presentation, made by Guillermo Arthur Errazuriz – President of The Chilean Pension Fund Administrators Association (AAFP), President of The International Federation of Pension Funds Administrators (FIAP). Mr. Errazzuriz provided interesting information about the experience of the capital systems in Chili, where the multifunds have long history.

On page 18 and 20, in the column Forum, we reflect the Second National Conference “Financial Stability and Quality in Healthcare”, which took place on October 6th - 7th 2009, at the metropolitan Grand Hotel Sofia, Triaditza Hall.

The conference is organized by the MARK Institute with the support of the Foundation “Higher School of Insurance and Finance-VUZF”. We carry the materials under the catchy title “Yet another request for change of the health insurance system”. The voluntary health insurance in the country is collecting 15 times more GWP than the mandatory health insurance. 20 years after the beginning of the aka transition, however the health reform in Bulgaria is yet unfinished.

In the same column on page 19 you can find the continuation of the article from issue n^o 18 - “Looking beyond the crisis”. We carry the report “The Non-life Insurance Company in the turbulent business environment”, delivered by the Dr. Radoslav Gabrovski, Ph.D., at the VIII-th National conference with international participation “Insurance and Social Security in the Conditions of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis – solutions for Bulgaria and European Union”, VUZF, 11-13 June 2009.

We finish our overview with the celebration of 1^st October- Insurer’s Day /page 22/. Bulgaria is one of the few countries with no insurance companies went bankrupt in the last year. The insurers celebrated their professional holiday with stylish cocktail at the metropolitan Kempinski Hotel Zografski. Unlike the last year’s festivity, which was branded by the crisis, this one was illuminated by the hope, the hope for the end of the economic crisis in Bulgaria.

 

Selection: Vania Petrova

Translation: Albena Dimitrova