Gross written premium in 3Q2014 by the Slovak insurers went up y-o-y by 2%, to EUR 1.6 billion, at a fairly equal growth pace for life and non-life insurance segments. According to the National Slovak Bank, the market supervisor, overall the number of insurance policies grew by 4.13%, which compared with the GWP increase indicates a still highly competitive market.

In fact, on the life insurance market the dominant trend seems to be somehow different, taking into consideration the NBS statistics. Thus, while the total number of policies remained quasi stable, as compared with 3Q2013, GWP increased by 2.03%. The trend is more visible on the death assurance line (-2.9% change in the number of policies; 14.6% change in GWP) and for the unit-linked policies (-5.35% change in the number of policies; 3.4% change in GWP). It is also noteworthy that the number of policy surrenders decreased by about 8.6%, while sums paid for maturities increased by about 18%, suggesting an ageing portfolio.

On the non-life segment, however, especially on the fire and MTPL insurance classes, the effects of the highly competitive market are visible. Thus, on the MTPL line, while the number of policies increased by 8.35%, GWP went down 1.3%. Similarly, for the fire insurance line, the number of policies went up by 3.8%, while GWP decreased by 0.5%. Considering the two mentioned classes account together for about 24% of the total GWP, it is obvious that a hardening market for the motor and fire property insurance risks is driving a somehow stagnant trend for the entire non-life business even there are some classes with a clear positive evolution.

Access www.xprimm.com and download the 3Q2014 Slovak insurance market statistics.