Switzerland's largest insurer - ZURICH Insurance Group - annouced its Chief Executive Martin SENN is stepping down, with Chairman Tom de SWAAN immediately taking his place as interim CEO. ZURICH Insurance said he will leave the company at the end of the year, while the process to appoint Martin SENN's successor is underway.

Austrian VIG Chief Executive Peter HAGEN will leave the company at the end of December and will be succeeded by DONAU Versicherung CEO Elisabeth STADLER, the insurer announced on its website.

For 3Q 2015, CROATIA osiguranje (CO) reported GWP of HRK 2.38 billion (EUR 312 million) up 3.7% y-o-y, according to the 3Q Report published on the CO's main shareholder, ADRIS Grupa, website. About 19% of total GWP was generated by the life segment, while the remaining 81% was accounted by the non-life sub-classes. At the same time, the CO Group members paid claims of about HRK 1.13 billion (EUR 149 million), 7.1% less y-o-y.

QATAR Reinsurance Company Ltd announced that it has completed the process of re-domiciling to Bermuda. At the same time the company has been granted a Class 4 licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), following all regulatory approvals, effective today, December 3rd. As part of the re-domiciling QATAR Re's capitalisation will increase to approximately USD 500 million. The company will continue to benefit from a parental guarantee from QATAR Insurance Company S.A.Q. (QIC) and from the existing A / Stable and A (Excellent) ratings from Standard & Poor's and A.M. Best.

BTA Group's member companies ended 3Q2015 with GWP of EUR 131.3 million, an amount fairly equal to the last years's one, but with significantly improved results in terms of profitability. Thus, as a Group release mentions, BTA Group's profit exceeded last year's profit, reaching EUR 6.2 million as a results of optimizing administrative processes and reducing operational costs.

"Our knowledge of risk, our financial resilience and long-term investments horizon enable us to now offer more effective support for climate protection while making the most out of long-term opportunities for our customers", stated Oliver BATE, CEO of ALLIANZ SE with regard to the Group's announcement concerning its determination to make climate protection part of its core business.

Austrian insurer UNIQA expects a full year pretax profit in the range of EUR 425 to 450 million, after announcing EUR 301.9 million in the first nine months (9.7% up y-o-y). The consolidated net profit rose by 29.6% to EUR 245.0 million and premiums written increased 8.3% to EUR 4.87 billion. At the same time, the combined ratio improved to 98.0% from 99.0% last year, the company said in a statement.

In 3Q2015, the SAVA Re Group saw GWP amounting to EUR 384.6 million, up 3.6% y-o-y, with the strongest growth coming from international reinsurance business. The current GWP figure represents 80.7% of the planned premium for the full year 2015. The Group achieved a net profit of EUR 23.0 million, which is 7.9% down y-o-y, but still in line with the 2015 budget.

The TRIGLAV Group ended the first nine months of 2015 with a profit before tax of EUR 94.9 million, representing a 6% growth y-o-y. Moreover, GWP went up by 4% y-o-y, to EUR 718.3 million thanks to achieving the Group's Strategy focused on the development of pension and health insurance products and on boosting business in the Adria region. In fact, the extra-Slovenian businesses of the Group reported the highest growth rates.

The global economy is expected to strengthen moderately in 2016, supporting insurance premium growth in most regions, according to Swiss Re's latest publication, Global insurance review 2015 and outlook 2016/17. Demand for non-life insurance is expected to grow, led by an 8% to 9% annual gain in the emerging markets in 2016 and 2017. The life insurance sector faces challenges, in particular from ongoing low interest rates. Nevertheless, global life premiums are forecast to rise by about 4% in each of the next two years, led also by the emerging markets.

Slovenian leading insurer Zavarovalnica TRIGLAV announced it has signed a deal to sell a 97.31% stake in AVRIGO - a Nova Gorica-based coach company to public transportation company Adventura Prevozi for EUR 14.2 million. The deal will be completed after obtaining an approval of the Competition Protection Agency of the Republic of Slovenia. The transaction is planned to be completed in the first half of 2016.

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) announced that its nine-month pretax profit decreased by 60% to EUR 175.3 million, while the value of gross premiums edged down 1.8% to EUR 6.9 billion. Splited by lines of business, property and casualty GWP increased by 0.9% y-o-y to EUR 3.6 billion, while the life segment was down by 5.2% y-o-y (to EUR 3 billion). At the same time, VIG's combined ratio slipped 0.2% to 96.9%.

In the first nine months of the year, Trust Re generated GWP of USD 384.2 million. This represents a rise of 0.8% from the USD 381.3 million reached in the equivalent period twelve months ago.

Softer market conditions on the capital markets, the price war and rising loss ratio in motor insurance have strongly affected PZU's results in 3Q2015, leading to a 28.5% y-o-y fall in the Group's net financial result, to PLN 1.83 billion (~ EUR 432 million), as a Group's recent press release enphasizes.

The volume of the reinsurance premiums collected by TRANSSIB Re (Russia) reached RUB 810 million in the third quarter of 2015, 24.3% more than in the previous period of 2014, according to the reinsurer's statement.

During the first three quarters of 2015 ERGO has shown excellent results in the Baltic States both in GWP and profitability terms, outperforming the market in all lines of business. GWP amounted to EUR 134 million, almost 14% up y-o-y. Positive bottom line result amounted to EUR 5.13 million profit, which is 42% higher than in the same period of 2014.

Slovenia's largest insurer, Zavarovalnica TRIGLAV announced its preliminary consolidated net profit increased by 5% y-o-y to EUR 80.9 million in the first nine months of 2015.

The TALANX Group closed the first nine months of 2015 with an operating profit of EUR 1.51 billion, 4.4% more y-o-y, while the value of GWP increased by 12.1%, to EUR 24.35 billion. At the same time, affected by the impairment in full of goodwill amounting to EUR 155 million in the German life insurance business, the group's net income was down by 7.9% y-o-y to EUR 488 million: "The Group net income excluding the full goodwill impairment in the German life insurance business in the second quarter of 2015 stood at EUR 643 (530) million", the insurer pointed out in a statement.

During the  summer  months,  our  clients  continued  to  put  their  trust  in  us:  lending  and  deposit volumes  went  up  in  virtually  all  of  the  countries  where  we  operate.  A  low  cost  of  credit  also ensured that profit thrived. In a backdrop of economic recovery, but also of low interest rates and volatile  financial  markets,  KBC  ended  the  third  quarter  of  2015  with  a  strong    net  profit  of  600 million euros, somewhat below the 666 million euros recorded in the previous quarter and the 608 million euros recorded in the year-earlier quarter. The total result for the first nine months of 2015 stands at 1 776 million euros. The business model performed very well, as illustrated by  the fact that all countries were profitable in the third quarter.

Insurance Group SA (PZU), Poland's largest insurer, and Guidewire Software , Inc. a provider of software products to general insurers, today announced that PZU has successfully implemented Guidewire PolicyCenter and Guidewire BillingCenter as its next generation platform for non-life sales, underwriting, policy administration and billing operations. Additionally PZU has incorporated Guidewire Rating Management, Guidewire Reinsurance Management, and Guidewire Client Data Management into this transformation effort.