The Omniasig Viata insurance company, controlled by the Vienna Insurance group, underwrote gross premiums worth 12.7 million RON (3.8 million euros) in the first quarter of this year, up 17% from the 10.8 million RON (3.2 million euros) registered for the same period in 2006.
The growth rate of Omniasig Viata is lower than the 60% growth rate posted by the overall life insurance market for the first three months of 2007.
"Growth was primarily due to the efforts of our own sales force, made of 62 agencies and work points, with more than 2,700 agents, as well as through our employment of alternative sales channels (i.e. brokers, financial institutions)," stated Fanel Plopeanu, the general manager of Omniasig Viata.
In Q1, the insurer paid out 6.6 million RON (around 2 million euros) in claims, 22% more than in the same period in 2006.
This year, Omniasig Viata plans to focus on selling health insurance, which last year generated revenues worth around 10 million euros on the entire insurance market, with approximately 15 insurers present on this segment.
"Considering the development of the legislative-institutional framework, which has an impact on medical services, this is the right time for us to continue to develop and promote private health insurance," explained Plopeanu. For voluntary health insurance, Omniasig Viata offers two types of policies: Omvisan (which includes nine types of different health insurance contracts) and also Dental Care dental insurance.
Omniasig Viata also offers a medical insurance product to companies called Job Confort, which covers labour medicine services.
Omniasig Viata is not the only domestic player to have decided to place a greater focus on the medical insurance market.
Other companies following the same trend include BCR Asigurari, which launched a VIP private health insurance, and AIG Life, which has recently launched a policy that offers diagnosis services in US hospitals.
Last month, Omniasig Viata increased its share capital by 8.1 million RON to 24.3 million RON (approximately 6.7 million euros).
The company's shareholders decided to make this move with a view to increasing the company's underwriting and development capacity.
In 2006 the value of gross underwritten premiums conducted by Omniasig Viata shrank by 12% to approximately 13.8 million euros.
One of the reasons behind this decrease was the loss of some banking sales channels, which generated more than 50% of the company's overall customer portfolio.
Last year, Omniasig Viata ended its collaboration with the BCR and CEC (Romanian Savings Bank).
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