Bulgarian EUROHOLD -owner of EUROINS Insurance Group (EIG) - announced in its preliminary financial report for 2018 - a positive financial result in amount of BGN 1.7 million (EUR 871,800) versus a loss of BGN 17.3 million (EUR 8.84 million) for the comparable period last year.

The new Insurance Distribution Act that became effective in the Czech Republic on 1 December 2018, and replaced the still effective Act on Insurance Intermediaries and Loss Adjusters (IILA) has introduced important changes on insurance distribution, as Schoenherr Journal wrote.

The newly founded insurance company Simplea was finally licensed by the Czech National Bank to start its activity, and it is expected to start operating in the second quarter of 2019.

IIF 2019 - CEE & SEE - Regional Actuarial Insurance Conference (the Marriott Hotel, Skopje, Macedonia, 28 February 2019) will explore the inclusive insurance concept and explain what actuarial services providers can add to this new domain.

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) has launched its first internal corporate start-up, the "viesure innovation center" (viesure). Managed by VIG's largest Group company, Wiener Stadtische Versicherung, the new company will focus on emerging trends in customer service.

In 2018 the total number of MTPL policies increased by 2%, according to the preliminary data, however, GWP of the class remained at the level of 2017, as ASN informed.

Total amount of the insurance indemnity paid by the Russian National Reinsurance Company (RNRC) for the damaged military cargo already reached RUB 3.5 billion (~EUR 46 million)*, which makes this loss the biggest and unique in the whole history of military cargo insurance in the country, as ASN wrote.

The national rating agency Expert RA confirmed the rating of SBERBANK Insurance at ruAA+, at that the outlook was changed from stable to positive, reports ASN.

On January 30, 2019 Representatives of the Insurance Supervision Agency and the National Bureau of Montenegro Insurers (NBMI) had a meeting, during which it was agreed that the Montenegrin insurance market is stable and has great development prospects, according to the press release of the supervisor.

Today, the Board of Supervisors of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) elected, effective immediately, Patrick MONTAGNER as a new member of EIOPA's Management Board. 

Bupa, the international healthcare company, announces it has completed the acquisition of Acıbadem Sigorta, Turkey's second largest health insurer.

Chisel AI is the Gold winner in the first ZURICH Innovation World Championship for its work that aims to improve processing of unstructured data sources using AI technology, ZURICH Insurance Group announced. Zesty.ai was the Silver winner, and LifeNome and Soldier.ly were named shared Bronze winners.

A stagflation scenario is a highly probable in Turkey and the non-life insurance market will be impacted. On the other side, due to inflation and higher interest rates, insurers will also see higher investment income, Yilmaz YILDIZ, CEO of Zurich Insurance Turkey told the World Finance quarterly.

On January 1st, 2019, AXA launched "AXA Next", an entity which is expected to bring new services and insurance coverage for AXA customers, speeding up the pace of innovation for the French group to become a true partner for its customers rather than a payer of claims.

Ante Zigman, the President of Management Board from HANFA (Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency) was elected as member of EIOPA Mediation Panel. The Mediation Panel is responsible to mediate and resolve in an impartial manner the disputes between national competent authorities.

To the satisfaction of its traditional guests, FIAR returns in 2019 to its historical hometown, Sinaia. The forthcoming edition will benefit from the comfort and professional facilities of a new venue, the Conference Center of the International Hotel ****, located in the heart of the beautiful mountain resort. Registration is opened at a significantly discounted early bird rate until 28 February.

According to the Ratings Review of A.M.Best dated January 24, 2019, CIS insurers work under geopolitical instability and their environment is quite volatile.

In 2018 Azeri insurers generated GWP in the amount of almost AZN 728 million (+30.7% y-o-y), data published by the Financial Market Supervisory Authority of Azerbaijan (FIMSA) show. In European currency, thanks to the Azeri Manat appreciation against Euro, the market results look much more impressive, increasing to EUR 373 million (+36.36% y-o-y growth).

The gross written premiums of Croatian insurers totaled HRK 9.9 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) last year, up by 8.8% y-o-y, official figures show. The highest contribution to this positive evolution came from the life insurance segment and from the motor insurance lines.