Eureko is downbeat: life insurance to stall for another two years

The life insurance market will stagnate this year and in 2011 and is to register slight increases of 2% and 4%, respectively, in 2012 and 2013, according to the estimates of Dutch group Eureko, with operations in the field of life and health insurance and private pensions domestically.
"We believe the market will stall through 2011 as under the current circumstances, when incomes are falling, people are reluctant to buy financial products. Moreover, insurance policies are still seen as luxury products," stated Shaun Russel, commercial manager of Eureko. He believes the insurance market will not return to two-digit annual increases before 2017.
Gross underwritten premiums on life insurance segment dropped by 15% in the first half compared with a year ago, to 15.2m RON. On the health insurance segment, where Eureko leads with a share of around 44%, the value of gross underwritten premiums in the first half went down by 8%, to 4.5m RON.
The company's officials expect turnover decline on the two segments to slow down to 7% on the entire 2010, as the transfer of KD Life portfolio to Eureko will be finalised late this month, but also because of the rising number of sold unit-linked policies.