The regional CIS* insurance market in 1H grew by almost 12% (in euros), total GWP exceeded EUR 12.84 billion. Paid claims also recorded a significant increase y-o-y (+15.45%) and amounted to EUR 5.26 billion, according to xprimm statistics.

Insurance Agency of Republika Srpska, one of the two administrative entities of Bosnia & Herzegovina, has increased commissions for MTPL insurance agents from 15 to 27% in an attempt to prevent companies from illegally increasing those commissions themselves, local financial press reported.

At the end of June 2021, the Slovak insurance market totaled EUR 1.15 billion, 0.3% more y-o-y, according to the half-year statistics published by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS). The profits of local insurers amounted to EUR 114.7 million, which was a 23.5% increase as compared to end-June 2020 (EUR 92.9 million), as official statistics show.

In September, Odessa hosted the XXI International Financial Forum to discuss the problems and prospects of business in the field of insurance and financial services, strategies for the development of the financial sector of Ukraine until 2025, changes in the legislative framework for financial and insurance business under the regulatory control of the NBU, new organizational and technological solutions and more, Forinsurer reports.

In September, Odessa hosted the XXI International Financial Forum to discuss the problems and prospects of business in the field of insurance and financial services, strategies for the development of the financial sector of Ukraine until 2025, changes in the legislative framework for financial and insurance business under the regulatory control of the NBU, new organizational and technological solutions and more, Forinsurer reports.

The insurance industry strongly welcomes the EC's proposal for an EU Green Bond Standard (EUGBS) as a framework to facilitate capital flows to green investments, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, Insurance Europe said in its response to the EC consultation.

According to the Bureau of Motor Insurers of Armenia, the number of vehicles with MTPL policy increased by 1% y-o-y in January-August 2021 (vs a decline of 2.9% a year earlier), however, this growth is still very far from the pre-covid rate of 13% (same period in 2019), ArmInfo reports reports.

Austrian insurer UNIQA announced it successfully concluded the merger of its units with the former AXA subsidiaries in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia acquired a year ago for a total cash consideration of EUR 1.0 billion.

The regional CIS* insurance market in 1H grew by almost 12% (in euros), total GWP exceeded EUR 12.84 billion. Paid claims also recorded a significant increase y-o-y (+15.45%) and amounted to EUR 5.26 billion, according to xprimm statistics.

In Belarus, voluntary pension insurance will be launched from October 1, 2022. On September 27, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree "On voluntary insurance of additional funded pension", BELTA reports citing the press service of the head of state.

In January-August 2021, total GWP of the insurance sector in Azerbaijan amounted to AZN 580.59 million (~EUR 289.37 million*), while AZN 448.67 million or 77.3% were generated by 5 insurance companies, ABC.AZ writes.

The insurance sector supports the promotion of sound securitization and an appropriate prudential treatment, in line with the objectives of the Capital Markets Union project, Insurance Europe's response to a consultation conducted by the European Commission on the functioning of the securitization framework in the EU says.

Sustainability data plays a particularly important role for insurers who, as well as being preparers of ESG data, are the largest institutional investor group states Insurance Europe's response to a consultation by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) on due process procedures for EU sustainability reporting standard setting.

Standard & Poor's reaffirmed the "A" Long-Term Credit Rating and Financial Strength Rating with a stable medium-term outlook of Triglav Group and thereby of its parent company and its subsidiary Pozavarovalnica Triglav Re, the Slovene re/insurance group announed in a statement.

Global re/insurance brokerage firm Marsh McLennan has appointed Denise Sanchez as the Company's Chief Compliance Officer.

Dutch insurance group Achmea announced that Daphne de Kluis will be appointed to company's Executive Board with effect from 12 October 2021. Thus, the Executive Board of Achmea will comprise Bianca Tetteroo (chair), Michel Lamie (vice-chair and CFO), Daphne de Kluis, Robert Otto, Lidwien Suur and Henk Timmer (CRO).

Aon's Reinsurance Aggregate (ARA) underwrites over 50% of the world's life and non-life reinsurance premiums and is therefore a reasonable proxy for the sector as a whole, the latest edition of ARA's report series tracking the financial performance of leading reinsurance carriers in the global market said.

Cyber insurance, sustainability, and current initiatives in the field of transport insurance were the main topics of the 18th International Conference "Insurance and Reinsurance in the Baltics 2021", which was organized by the Latvian Insurers' Association (LAA) on September 23.

Hungarian insurers' H1 2021 GWP rose 11.46% year-on-year to HUF 686.81 billion (EUR 1.94 billion), according to the quarterly statistics published by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB).

Revenue from premiums on life insurance policies increased in local currency by more than 18% y-o-y to HUF 306.31 billion (EUR 870 million), while non-life GWP rose 6.6% to HUF 377.5 billion (EUR 1.7 billion). About 45% of premium income originated from the life insurance business and 55% from the non-life insurance business.

At the end of 2021 Q2, the total contract porolio of insurance companies rose by 0.8% from its level a year earlier, reflecting over 108,800 increase in new contracts to 14,496,469. This mainly resulted from a 1.02% rise in the number of non-life insurance contracts (to 12,161,353), accompanied by a somewhat declining number of life insurance contracts (a decline of 0.6% to 2,335,116).

The first half year statistics recently published by the Czech National Bank - CNB show that at the end of June the local insurance industry totaled about CZK 89 billion (~EUR 3.5 billion), up by 4% y-o-y.