Insurance market growth strengthened even more this year and life insurance segment was characterized by the largest volume of premiums written in six years, according to the January-September 2013 market data, recently published by the Bank of Lithuania.

The following report was released by the Bank of Lithuania.

"The recovery in the national economy has placed the entire insurance market on the path of growth - some segments of this market are hitting new records in premiums written and claims paid; the number of contracts concluded is growing fast," says Mindaugas SALCIUS, Deputy Director of the Prudential Supervision Department of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania.

The insurance undertakings registered in the country and branches of insurance undertakings of other European Union Member States established in Lithuania during nine months of the current year wrote insurance premiums in the amount of LTL 1.4 billion (EUR 408 million), a y-o-y increase of 10%. Over nine months, the life insurance market expanded by 10.7% (up to LTL 418.5 million), and the non-life segment - by 9.7% (up to LTL 989.7 million) year on year.

The development of the life insurance market was driven by growth of 11.7% in unit-linked life assurance premiums written, despite the stronger growth rate of the traditional life assurance market as early as at the beginning of the year. Over nine months, a total of LTL 286.5 million of unit-linked life insurance premiums was written, while in the third quarter alone, the number of such insurance contracts rose by 27.6% - to 20,715. The amount of premiums written in one of the traditional life insurance classes - insurance in the case of survival - hit an all-time record, LTL 101.3 million.

The volumes of contracts concluded expanded across all classes of non-life insurance, except for surety ship insurance. The highest number was registered by motor third party liability insurance, which increased by 5.1% and amounted to 2,047.7 thousand units, while the amount of premiums was up by 10.8% and 357.8 million respectively. The claims paid within this class of insurance hit new record heights - 2013, LTL 201.9 million, or 13.5% more was paid year on year.

The leap in life insurance claims paid has been slowly fading due to the expiration last year and this year or termination of 10 year-insurance contracts. LTL 62.1 million of claims were paid in January 2013, but in subsequent months their volume contracted and, in September, only LTL 19.4 million was paid. Over nine months of this year, a total of LTL 256.9 million of life assurance claims were paid.

Access www.xprimm.com and download the 3Q2013 Lithuanian insurance market statistics.