AVIVA announced Mark WILSON and the Board have agreed that Mark is stepping down as CEO of the group. "Mark will remain with the group until April 2019 and will assist with the planned and orderly transition".

For 8 months of this year, investments in the financial and insurance sector amounted to KZT 37.1 billion (-11.5% y-o-y). The largest part, almost 100%, of those investments were provided by owners' equity and retained earnings of the businesses, as Finprom.kz reported.

The leader of the Kazakh insurance market, EURASIA, will participate in insurance of the new Istanbul airport, which will become the biggest airport in the world.

On October 5, 2018, the rating agency S&P affirmed "B/B" long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Belarus with a stable outlook, as the Finance Ministry of the Republic announced.

Insurance Europe - the European insurance and reinsurance federation, called for a two-year delay in IFRS17 implementation to address the 11 issues that were identified during the tests performed by EFRAG - the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group.

The 15th edition of ICAR - The International Catastrophic Risks Forum, taking place in Bucharest, Romania, on 9 October, touches issues of paramount concern.

In Kazakhstan in the first 7 months of this year, the total number of paid claims amounted to 385.7 thousand, which is, according to ranking.kz, 2.1 times more y-o-y. The total number of reported claims decreased y-o-y to 117.5 thousand (-9.3%).

According to Ibrahim ALISHOV, executive director of the Azerbaijan Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA), GWP on the Azeri market in 2018 may exceed last year's figure.

In emerging markets like Turkey, there can be a significant difference between insured and total insurable losses.
Focusing on closing the protection gap, the 10th International Istanbul Insurance Conference gathers in Istanbul, between the 4th and the 5th of October 2018, well-known speakers from Turkish and the global insurance & reinsurance markets.

Victor DUBROVIN was appointed as the acting general director of SBERBANK Life insurance. Alexey RUDENKO, previous general director, left the position due to transfer to another job, stated the insurer's press service.

The beginning of December marks the 4^th edition of FinTech Connect, a full eco-system fintech trade show dedicated to major banks, insurers, capital market firms, and investors.

The largest insurance market in the CEE, Poland, ended1H2018 with GWP worth EUR 7.36 billion (PLN 32.12 billion). In local currency, the y-o-y comparison shows a positive rate growth of 1.7%. Yet, given the roughly 3% depreciation of the Polish zloty against Euro, the market results denominated in European currency show a market decrease of 1.4%.

Macedonian insurers ended 1H2018 with an aggregated GWP volume of EUR 80 million, up 6.7% y-o-y. Most of the market growth came from the non-life insurance segment, namely from MTPL and fire and allied perils insurance lines.

Total GWP for the first half year amounted to RUB 731.78 billion (~EUR 10 billion; +13.28% y-o-y in local currency), according to the Central Bank of Russia. Total paid claims went down by 14% to RUB 235.78 billion (EUR 3.2 billion).

Austrian Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) announced during the merger of WIENER STADTISCHE with S Versicherung, that Manfred BARTALSZKY was appointed to the Managing Board of WIENER STADTISCHE, where he is now responsible for bank distribution.

ZURICH Insurance Group announced that it has entered into agreements to acquire 80% of PT Asuransi Adira Dinamika (Adira Insurance), a top 10 property and casualty (P&C) insurer in Indonesia, from PT Bank Danamon Indonesia (Bank Danamon) and a minority investor.

VIENNA Insurance Group said WIENER STADTISCHE officially becomes the largest life insurance company in Austria after WIENER STADTISCHE successfully completes its merger with s Versicherung.

The financial services provider PIMCO, owned by ALLIANZ said that it has agreed to acquire GURTIN Municipal Bond Management - a specialist municipal bond manager.

The Bosnian market saw a consolidated GWP growth rate of 4% y-o-y in 1H2018, to EUR 183.5 million. Of this total, the non-life insurance segment accounts for by far the largest part with over 80%. Moreover, the MTPL insurance class provides for a clear half of the total GWP volume.

In the first half of 2018, the Bulgarian insurance market maintained a growth rhythm close to that established during the previous year, reporting a 7.9% y-o-y increase in GWP, to EUR 627.5 million.