On 2nd January 2023, NN Group announced that it has completed the legal mergers of the former MetLife businesses in Poland and Greece.

Marsh, the world's leading insurance broker and risk advisor, announced new leadership appointments within Marsh Captive Solutions.

January 1 renewals are proving to be one of the most challenging reinsurance markets the sector has experienced, as reinsurers and cedents work to establish a new market equilibrium, according to global reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, a business of Marsh McLennan.

Euroins Insurance Group (EIG), part of Eurohold Bulgaria, announced it has signed an agreement to sell its subsidiary in Belarus and the group's stake in a company in Russia. The new owner of the two insurers is a Russian company.

This year started in a dramatic, unexpected way. While the COVID-19 epidemic has gradually subsided, fueling hopes for the economic recovery, On February 24^th, the start of the Russian aggression on Ukraine changed completely turned the tables by confronting the global economy with a new looming crisis that also impacted the insurance business as well.

The year 2022 can be characterized as one of the most challenging years in recent decades from the social, financial, political environment points of view, the word "crisis" characterizing better than ever a period of twelve months.

Among the ex-USSR regional markets, for which data is available for comparison, the most significant increase in premiums this year in euros has been demonstrated by Uzbekistan, while Kazakhstan recorded the least growth in volumes and Ukraine continued to be the only market in the region where there is an annual decline in GWP volumes.

In 9M 2022, insurance companies licensed in Romania wrote gross premiums worth EUR 2.43 billion, up by 23% y-o-y, data from the market authority show. Adding to this amount GWP by insurers operating on FOE, the total market GWP reached 2.7 billion. Non-life insurance accounted for 83% of the total GWP.

"Housing is a basic need and it is human right, so it is something of fundamental importance that we need to take care of, especially now that with current challenges housing became an issue in many markets in Europe," Dieter Pscheidl, Head of European Affairs and ESG, Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) stated in the debut of third XPRIMM TIME FOR BUSINESS addressing ESG issues.

The CIS regional insurance market* ended the first three quarters of 2022 with an annual growth of approximately 43% y-o-y in euros, reaching EUR 28.15 billion, according to xprimm statistics.

The gross written premiums of Slovenian insurers rose 4.8% on the year in the first nine months of 2022, reaching EUR 2.14 billion, according to the end-September 2022 market data of the Slovenian Insurance Association.

Of the PLN 4.5 billion (~EUR 0.92 billion) allocated in this year's state budget for subsidies to insurance premiums for crops and livestock, only PLN 390.2 million (~EUR 80.28 million) was used in the first three quarters of 2022, which, according to experts, indicates that Polish farmers are still reluctant to insure their crops and livestock, farmer.pl wrote.

All employees of the Allianz Hrvatska insurance company were paid the highest amount of one-time bonuses compared to previous years, and Allianz was named the best global brand in the insurance industry for the fourth year in a row, svijetosiguranja.eu wrote.

The assets of Ukrainian insurance companies for 9 months of 2022, according to the balance sheet, amounted to UAH 70.9 billion (~EUR 1.99 billion). Equity capital amounted to UAH 24.7 billion, including the amount of paid charter capital of UAH 8 billion. Formed insurance reserves decreased to UAH 39.8 billion, Forinsurer writes according to Insurance TOP magazine.

Total assets of the insurance companies of the Republic of Moldova for the first 9M2022 exceeded MDL 4.3 billion (~EUR 0.22 billion), which is 20.5% higher y-o-y, md.sputniknews.ru writes.

Independent insurance companies have repeatedly taken an initiative to limit the banks' ownership of insurance companies at the legislative level, but this initiative has not yet yielded results, Archil Morchiladze, head of the Insurance Group of Georgia and co-chairman of the Insurance Union, said, Business Georgia reports.

Slovenian re/insurance group SAVA Re informed that its supervisory board appointed David BENEDEK as member of the management board of the company.

Lloyd's - the world's leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace announced that Richard Dudley has been elected as a Working Member of the Lloyd's Council. Richard Dudley replaces Dominic Christian, who will be stepping down on 31 January 2023 after 9 years of dedicated contribution to Lloyd's Council. Richard Dudley's election will be effective from 1 February 2023.

Dutch insurer ACHMEA informed that starting 1 February 2023 Nadine BEISTER is the new Group HR Director, succeeding Elly PLOUMEN, who has held this position since 2011.

The global economy is headed for a significant slowdown of growth with many major and European economies moving into mild recessions, Belgian financial group KBC informed in a statement.