The total volume of gross premiums written by the Insurance Association of Cyprus (IAC) members amounted to EUR 382 million in 1H2014, representing a decrease of 2.2% y-o-y. According to the IAC website, there are 30 insurance company members accounting for about 95% of the annual GWP in the local market.

In the life insurance segment, GWP has decreased by 7.2%, totaling almost EUR 155 million, while the non-life insurance segment accounted for EUR 227 million (~60% of total premiums), 1.6% more y-o-y.

Almost entirely, the non-life segment was quantitatively dominated by three major insurance classes: Accidents & Health, Fire and Motor insurance, respectively. The three business lines generated almost EUR 193 million in the analyzed period, which is more than a half of the volume of the total insurance industry.

All in all, at the end of June 2014, Cyprus's life insurance market reported a negative result: the gross underwriting loss was -EUR 22.90 million (+EUR 6.46 million in 1H2013), while the net underwriting loss was -EUR 25.09 million (+EUR 4.65 a year before). This negative result was due to the -EUR 38 million net loss reported by only one player: METLIFE ALICO. The other market players reported profit, from this point of view "the champions" being CYPRIALIFE (EUR 5.5 million), EUROLIFE (EUR 3.7 million) and HELLENIC ALICO (EUR 2.2 million).

At the end of June, the underwriting result reported by the non-life insurance segment was EUR 15.65 million, compared with EUR 22 million a year before. On insurance classes, the following non-life classes had the largest contribution: fire (EUR 8.22 million), A&H (EUR 3.06 million), and liability (EUR 2.33 million).

In the life insurance segment, the top three ranking remained the same as in 1H2013, with slight changes in companies' market shares: EUROLIFE with 27.07% market share, CNP CYPRIALIFE (former LAIKI) with 22.65% and UNIVERSAL Life with a 23.99% market share.

In non-life insurance, General Insurance of Cyprus (14.22% market share) led the field ahead of CNP Asfalistiki (11.16%) and UNIVERSAL Life (8.03%), as data from IAC show. In case of UNIVERSAL Life, the insurer portfolio was fully formed of A&H insurances.

An extended analysis of the Cyprus insurance market evolution in 1H2014 will be available in the forthcoming issue of XPRIMM Insurance Report 1H2014, to be released on October, 19th, on the occasion of the Baden-Baden XPRIMM Reception (Kurhaus Casino, Runder Saal, 18:30 - 20:30 hours - register here).

Access www.xprimm.com and download the 1H2014 Cyprus insurance market statistics.

• Market portfolio (GWP/ Claims/ Growth rates)
• Life and non-life market rankings (GWP/ Market shares/ Growth rates)