Road safety and bodily injuries were two of the key topics of the GEN Re "Motor Insurance Baltic" Seminar that took place in Riga, Latvia on September 28 2016.

Death caused by road accidents in the Baltics have decreased of 20,3% Lithuania, 10.9% Latvia, and 6.3% Estonia as of September 2016 in comparison with the same period in 2015, according to the head of Latvia's Road Traffic Safety Directorate, Aldis LAMA. Member states of the European Union managed to achieve a 17% reduction in the number of road deaths between 2010 and 2015, but the EU target is far more ambitious. Latvia has a Road Safety Plan in place, covering the period of 2014-2020, which aims at reducing deaths from road accidents by half, from 218 to 109 persons by 2020. Therefore, the road safety in Baltic countries has improved recently and have one of the best reduction of death in the EU.

Latvian insurers closed 2015 with an overall GWP volume reaching EUR 531.1 million, 2.6% up y-o-y. Paid claims also increased to EUR 310.6 million, 9.8% more y-o-y. On the non-life segment, which represents some 78% of all GWP, motor lines recorded a positive evolution, GWP increasing, in average, by 6.3%, to EUR 146.6 million.

Some 100 participants from the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and key representatives from other European markets were in the audience. GEN Re, the global reinsurer that is part of the US Berkshire Hathaway family of companies, is a traditional organizer of such workshops in a number of developing markets for many years now.