Starting March 2nd 2019, commercial associations in Estonia are allowed to perform insurance activities inside country borders, under the title of insurance associations. The Amendment on Insurance Activities Act, the law governing the insurance market in Estonia, applies the regulation for insurance associations as well.

The Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -, have recorded between 2008-2017 a trend similar to the other CEE markets. The same main pattern can be distinguished, splitting the evolution of the market in three periods: decline (2008-2010), recovery (2010-2013) and growth (2013-2017).

Insurers operating on the Estonian market reported total GWP of EUR 552 million for the financial year 2018, up by 29.2% y-o-y, according to the market data published by the Estonian National Statistics Board.

During 2018 there were 35,251 road motor incidents in Estonia, the lowest number in the past 4 years. While the number of incidents decreased, the average claim has increased in value by 11,62% compared to 2017.

The Parliment of Estonia, Riigikogu, has approved the text of the new law on insurance activities. Today, only a few types of companies have the right to do insurance business inside Estonia. The new law will permit specific commercial associations to act as insurers too.

Estonian insurance market totaled EUR 357 million at the end of September 2018, up by 13.7% y-o-y, according to quarterly market figures published by the Estonian National Statistics Board.

Estonian non-life insurer SEESAM, one of last entered players in the VIG family, raised its GWP in the Baltic states by 10% y-o-y, to EUR 54.1 million, informs LETA, quoting Dace ZITMANE, marketing manager at the Latvian branch of the company.

Estonian insurers reported H1 2018 GWP of EUR 243 million, almost 17% more compared with January-June 2017, according to the market figures published by the Estonian National Statistics Board.

As part of a Governmental plan to support organic farming, Estonian farmers involved in this segment will benefit starting 2019 from a 70% contribution of the State to the premiums paid by farmers in crop insurance, livestock and plant insurance, if the Ministry of Rural Affairs proposal will be approved.

Estonian insurers reported in Q1 2018 GWP of EUR 125.7 million, representing an 26.1% y-o-y increase, according to the quarterly figures published by the Estonian National Statistics Board.

10 years after its inception, the Romanian mandatory dwelling insurance system has progressed and PAID, the pool underwriting and managing the mandatory policies is a strong and financially sound institution. "We are currently managing a reinsurance program worth EUR 920 million, with a pool of excellent reinsurers, more than half of them rated AA+, while the company's solvency rate is of 220%," recently stated Nicoleta RADU, CEO, PAID.

The first Georgian International Insurance Conference took place on 14 March 2019. The event put under scrutiny the current status and the future development perspectives of the local market, in an attempt of identifying the main growth opportunities. The forthcoming launch of the mandatory MTPL system was the most important topic on the agenda, as this new line of business has the potential to provide for a significant growth, but also to become a market disruptor.

Climate risks have always produced high impact events, causing material and human losses that often have remained in collective memory as reference points. On the other hand, cyber risks are just emerging, but they are already demonstrating a potentially catastrophic impact which still needs to be better understood and assessed.