FIAR 2023 - The International Insurance Reinsurance Forum started on Monday, June 26, with the Insurance Market Trends Conference, which analysed the main changes and challenges faced by the Romanian and European insurance markets, from macroeconomic trends and the impact of inflation on insurers, to how Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT will shape the future of insurance.

Gross written premiums amounted to EUR 43.89 billion at regional level, up by almost 7.53% y-o-y. At the same time, claims paid increased by 9.7% y-o-y, to EUR 25.37 billion.

The most successful Croatian tennis player and coach, Goran Ivanišević, is the new brand ambassador of the UNIQA SEE region, which consists of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Bulgaria, osiguranje.hr informs.

What does artificial intelligence mean for the human role in insurance? Will artificial intelligence replace some traditional professions? Will it replace the agent, loss assessor and actuary? The topic is on the agenda of the upcoming conference entitled "Artificial intelligence in insurance - evolution or revolution?", that will take place in Ljublijana, at the Grand Hotel Union.

In 2022, Czech insurance companies handled over 270,000 property insurance claims for almost CZK 13 billion (EUR 548 million). In average, a damage to the property of Czechs or companies occurred every two minutes. The most expensive were the fires. Windstorms became the jump of the year, the number of which increased by a third, data of the Czech Association of Insurance Companies (CAP) show.

GWP distributed by Romanian insurance brokers in the local market increased by 26% in 2022 compared to the previous year, up to almost RON 12.5 billion (EUR 2.52 billion). Thus, they distributed almost 76% of the total premium volume in the industry, the Financial Supervisory Authority's report reads.

The aggregate Q1 GWP reported by Hungarian insurers totaled HUF 421.71 billion (~EUR 1.10 billion), 6.57% more y-o-y, according to the Q1 statistics published by the Central Bank of Hungary. The life insurance business accounted for 35.85% and the non-life insurance business accounted for 64.15% of total premium income.

In 1Q2023, the market significantly grew y-o-y. This was largely due to the low base effect, since in February-March 2022 the external conditions for the Russian economy deteriorated sharply, which led, among other things, to a significant decrease in activity in the insurance market and a GWP reduction at the end of 1Q2022, the Central Bank notes in its review.

Polish insurance market reported Q1 2023 aggregate GWP worth PLN 20.12 billion (EUR 4.30 billion), 10.89% more y-o-y according to the quarterly statistics published by Polish KNF (Financial Supervision Authority). Claims and benefits paid by local insurers decreased by 2.46% y-o-y to PLN 11.25 billion (~EUR 2.40 billion) from PLN 11.53 billion a year before.

Since June 1, Belarus relations in the Green Card insurance system have been ceased with more than 30 countries, now 13 more countries have been added to this list, Sputnik writes.

The insurance company Spitamen Insurance received a golden award "For Labor and Valor" from the Eurasian Union of States, which is a significant event in the history of the insurance market in Tajikistan,

INTERLIFE Insurance recorded a significant increase in business in 1Q2023 - by 17.09% vs 10.2% on the market, according to Ioannis Votsaridis, who presented the company's data, insuranceforum.gr reports.

Thanks to the improvement in the insurance sector's solvency ratios observed in 2H2022, at the end of December the coverage ratio of the Solvency Capital Requirement with eligible own funds was 272% in life and 228% in non-life, which was more than at the end of June 2022, the "Financial Stability Report. June 2023" published by the National Bank of Poland said, Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa wrote.

Global broker WTW announced the appointment of Diya Luke as global head of Investments, effective July 1. She will report to Julie Gebauer, head of Health, Wealth & Career and succeeds Chris Ford, who will retire at the end of June.

Global re/insurance broker Aon announced that Paul Davies has taken on the role of Vice Chair of the company, reporting to Aon CEO Greg Case.

The German insurance group Talanx announced its Retail International division has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Liberty Seguros personal and small commercial business in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Generali announced it has reached an agreement with Liberty Mutual for the purchase of Liberty Seguros, a Spanish insurance company operating in Spain, Portugal Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Total income of insurance companies in Kazakhstan in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to KZT 241.5 billion (~EUR 0.48 billion), which is 20.1% more y-o-y. At the same time, expenses increased by 16.6%, to KZT 195.3 billion (~EUR 0.39 billion), Allinsurance.kz reports.

As of now, approximately 50,000 private health insurance policies are effective on the Georgian insurance market. At the same time, the demand for private policies has significantly decreased after introduction of the state insurance system, as noted by the President of the Insurance Association Devi Khechinashvili,

The risk management and insurance company Global Benefits Georgia has insured an unprecedented construction project of Orbi Group and Block LLC "Central Park Tower". The investment volume of the construction project is 300 million US dollars. Total premium of Global Benefits Georgia's insurance package is 1 million Gel (~EUR 350.877).