In the financial year 2012, the gross premiums written by the Montenegrin insurers amounted to EUR 66.8 million, representing a very slight increase, of only 3% y-o-y, as the Insurance Supervision Agency reported. Compared with FY2011, non-life insurance premiums grew by almost 3 % (to EUR 57.3 million), while the total life insurance premiums grew by 5% (to EUR 9.5 million). "Even if in Montenegro the volume of premiums does not seem very high, the insurance density is comparable to other larger countries, such as Bulgaria, Romania or Serbia, which is about EUR 100 per capita," declared Boris SABAN, Executive Director, National Bureau of Montenegro Insurers, last week at the International Insurance Forum in Istanbul.

"Montenegro is one of the smallest countries in the CEE Region with 625 thousand people and from the insurance point o view we certainly have a distinct advantage, but also disadvantages. As an advantage, we use the characteristics of a small but very flexible market compared with other bigger markets," said Boris SABAN.

As in the previous reporting periods, in the life insurance segment the absolute market leaders were the same Austrian-owned insurers: GRAWE (49% market share) and UNIQA (16.5%).

In the general insurance segment, the leader of the market was still LOVCEN (member of the Slovenian TRIGLAV Group) - an almost 48% market share, followed by the other Slovenian-owned insurer: SAVA Montenegro - a 19% market share.

"On the insurance market there were eleven players (five non-life and six life companies) and as for the capital structure, of the EUR 44 million, the foreign shareholders accounted for 76% of the total market capitalization. (...) For example, the life insurance segment is dominated by the Austrian groups while the main players in non-life segment are the Slovenian TRIGLAV and SAVA," pointed Boris SABAN.

Access www.xprimm.com and download the FY2012 Montenegrin insurance market statistics.

Market portfolio:

• Gross written premiums
• Growth rates
  

Market rankings (Total, life and non-life insurance):

• Gross written premiums
• Market shares 
• Growth rates