Since the beginning of 2020, about 2.5 million of Sberbank's customers have applied for Sberbank life insurance program when concluding a consumer lending agreement, and 20% of them included insurance against involuntary job loss as an additional option, the insurer informed in its press release.

For the period of January to September 2020, Sberbank life insurance made 55,000 insurance payments to borrowers of consumer loans, including more than 2,600 payments related to involuntary job loss.

Katrin SOOMRE, Director of Protective Insurance Products and Services Division at Sberbank explained:

"This year, due to the epidemiological situation and the state of uncertainty related to it, we can see an increased demand for insurance against job loss. It is important for customers who issue loans to be sure that their obligations to the bank will be fulfilled if an emergency occurs. In the near future, we will modify our voluntary life insurance program and add new risks to it, including the risk of a decrease in salary, for consumer borrowers at Sberbank. A new version of job loss insurance with a lower price and wider coverage will already become available to customers in all regions via Sberbank Online this year."

SBERBANK Life insurance is a subsidiary of Sberbank of Russia, and is offering risk, accumulative and investment life insurance. The company has national rating based on RAEX scale (Expert RA) - ruAAA.