The Parliment of Estonia, Riigikogu, has approved the text of the new law on insurance activities. Today, only a few types of companies have the right to do insurance business inside Estonia. The new law will permit specific commercial associations to act as insurers too.

The initial draft of the law was discussed at December 3rd, 2018 under the name of Act 769. On January 31, 2019 the officials has accepted the final form of the Act. The main purpose of this initiative is to grow and diversify the insurance sector and the business environment in Estonia. According to the statistics published by the Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe (AMICE), in 2016 insurance cooperatives held 31.5% of the whole European insurance market. Estonia is one of the few countries in Europe where mutual and cooperative insurance were forbidden by law.

"While insurance associations are very common in other parts of Europe, Estonia is one of the few countries where cooperatives can not provide insurance services," said Dmitri DMITRIJEV, member of the Finance Committee of Riigikogu.

"Even though the Estonian insurance sector is well-functioning today and insurance services are available to customers, the aim is to improve and diversify the business environment and to give entrepreneurs and consumers an additional opportunity. It is also possible to create a completely new business line after the entry into force of the law, which is not covered by the current traditional activity," added DMITRIJEV.

The full text of the law can be found on Riigikogu's website, here.