Insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav remained the leading insurer in the Adria region last year, while the group around the NLB bank fell from second to third place among the banks, shows a survey by auditing firm Deloitte.

Italy's UniCredit was again the biggest banking group in the region with total assets of EUR 20.8bn, whereas NLB (EUR 15.9bn) conceded second place to the Italian group Intesa Sanpaolo (EUR 16bn).

Juraj Moravek, a partner with Deloitte, said that poor economic recovery in the region increased the share of non-performing loans, forcing banks to stay focused on this segment.

Another major event was the takeover by the biggest Russian bank, Sberbank, of eight members of the Volksbank International group. The deal, concluded in September, was worth EUR 505m.

The region's insurance industry leader remains the Slovenian Triglav Group, with a total realised premium of EUR 921m, followed by the Croatia Group (EUR 427m), and Adriatic Slovenia (EUR 333m), new in third place.

"Unlike the banking industry, the Slovenian insurance market is the most developed in the region, both by the share of gross premium in the GDP and the gross premium on a per capita basis, putting the country far ahead of the other countries in the region", Deloitte reported.

Read the full story on www.investslovenia.org.

SLOVENIA: TRIGLAV leading insurer in Adria Region, NLB 3rd biggest bank