BCR Asigurări swings back to profit after two years of losses

BCR Asigurări, ranking fifth on the general insurance market, ended last year with profit worth 14.4m lei (3.4m euros), after having cumulated losses of over 61m lei for two consecutive years.

The figure is calculated in line with IFRS.

"We succeeded in making profit amid a challenging economic climate and we kept our business volume relatively constant, even though the insurance market has quite strongly felt the crisis fallout," commented Mihai Tecău, general manager of BCR Asigurări.

The volume of gross underwritten premiums, the main indicator for an insurer's business, dropped by 9% in 2010, to 522m lei (124m euros). The steepest decline was registered in the case of comprehensive policies, where underwritten premiums totalled 179m lei last year, 39% below the 2009 level.

Sale increases were posted on the auto liability insurance segment, the segment of home insurance and general civil liability.