Top ten insurers made 1,400 employees redundant in a year

The ten largest insurance companies reduced their headcount by 1,400 people during 2009, namely 10% of the total, in a bid to bring down costs amid turnover declines. Gross underwritten premiums of the top ten insurers on the domestic market dropped by 4% last year, to 7.5bn RON (1.77bn euros), but the reduction in the number of employees was steeper, by 10%, from 14,660 in 2008 to 13,260 in late 2009. 2009 was the first year when insurers undertook extensive restructuring moves, with some of them renouncing even half of their employees, in line with data published by companies and data provided by the National Office of the Trade Registry. "This is the first time insurers embarked upon major restructuring moves, 10% is a high percentage. When your turnover goes down, you realise you're oversized," says Bogdan Andriescu, chairman of UNSICAR (the professional association of insurance brokers). Almost half of the employees that vanished from insurers' payrolls are from Ardaf, which last year cut its number of employees from 1,400 to 760.