Auto insurance rates in Albania will undergo reform in upcoming months and they will be depending on factors related to the degree of vulnerability for an accident, Top Channel reported on Tuesday referring to Albania's Financial Supervisory Authority.

Albania's Ministry of Transportation has facilitated the procedures for registering a motor vehicle in the country, local media reports. The only required documents now are the ownership certificate and the ID card. The law took effect on February 13, 2012.

Albania's insurance market suffered a sharp decline by 31.82% in January 2012, according to Albania's Financial Supervisory Authority.

Albania's competition watchdog will launch an investigation regarding the sudden increase of car insurance rates to establish whether insurance companies in Albania have conspired to fix prices, local media reports.

Albania's insurance market grew in local currency 2.3% in 2011 compared to the previous year (excluding reinsurance written premiums), according to data published by Albania's Financial Supervisory Authority (AFSA). In European currency, insurance premium revenues were about EUR 60.01 million. At the same time, the number of insurance contracts was of 1,306,602, up by 77.5% compared with year 2010.

The total insurance premium volume in Albania rose slightly to 7.7 billion ALL in the period January - November 2011 registering an increase of 5.3% compared to the same period a year ago, Tv Scan reported on Monday.

The total insurance premium volume rose slightly to 7.1 billion ALL in the period January - October 2011, up 4.5% compared to the same period in 2010. The liberalization of tariffs regarding the compulsory vehicle insurance has contributed to the sluggish growth of the Albanian insurance market.

The liberalization of tariffs regarding the compulsory vehicle insurance has led to lower revenues for insurance companies operating in the Albanian market. The total compulsory vehicle insurance premiums in the period January-September 2011 were ALL 3,009 million, down 7.82% compared to the same period the previous year, according to Albania's Financial Supervisory Authority.

Insurance premium revenues in January - September 2011 were about ALL 6.52 billion (EUR 46.27 million), or 5.2% (in local currency) more than the same period in 2010, according to Albania's Financial Supervisory Authority.

Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority (AFSA) in cooperation with the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (HFSA), held on October 10th-11th, in Tirana, the second regional meeting with the Insurance Supervisors from Central Europe, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe countries (CESEE). The meeting had a wide presence from homologue supervisory authorities from Albania, Austria, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

The first six months of this year marked a 5% increase for the Albanian insurance market, the total volume of underwritings reaching about EUR 30.4 million, according to preliminary results released by the Albanian Financial Supervisory Authority.

VIG signed last week an agreement to acquire a majority share in the Albanian insurance company INTERSIG. As a result of this transaction, subject to official approval, VIG will acquire 75% of the shares plus one share of the company from private ownership. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The top three insurance companies that operate in Albania accounted for 58% of the insurance market for the first five months of this year, down from 60% they occupied a year ago. Sigal Uniqa Group Austria continued to be the company with the biggest share of the market, respectively 35%, followed by Sigma Vienna Insurance Group with 13.6% and Interalbanian with 9.7%.

Albania's Parliamentary Committee on the Economy approved on Tuesday changes to the law on compulsory auto insurance, which were aimed at liberalizing the market, Tv Klan reports. According to the changes, insurance companies in Albania will be allowed to set prices independently based on the market.

Albania's insurance market grew by 8.5% in the first half of 2011. According to data published by Albania's Financial Supervisory Authority, the premium volume of the Albanian insurance market totaled 4.3 billion Leks in the period between January and June 2011.

The Albanian government decided this week to liberalize insurance premium rates regarding the compulsory motor vehicle insurance.

After several failed attempts to sell Albania's state-owned insurance company INSIG, the Albanian government has decided to make changes to the law on the privatization of the company by removing the minimum bid requirement, Top Channel reports.

Albania's government will offer for sale up to 100 percent of state-owned insurer INSIG after its last U.S. buyer backed out of a deal two years ago, a government official said on Thursday reports Reuters.

After several failed attempts for the privatization of Albania's state-owned insurance company, the Albanian government decided to change the privatization formula this week, daily Panorama reports. The changes in the form and formula for the privatization of INSIG come as a result of reportedly positive signals for its sale.

The end of last week had scheduled the signing of the agreement regarding the acquisition of the Albanian insurance company ALBSIG by the Slovenian insurance group TRIGLAV. So far, TRIGLAV held 9.9 percent of the ALBSIG shares, but "this figure will be increased to at least 50% in the next period", according to Slovenian publication FINANCE.