BNP Paribas enters insurance market

BNP Paribas, one of the leading financial groups in the world, will enter the Romanian insurance market with its own company, sources close to the French group told ZF. BNP Paribas, which owns the consumer credit business Credisson, will enter the market with a greenfield project (its own, newly created company) by means of its insurance company, Cardif. The French intend to create an integrated financial services network in the long run, and they already have its first link - consumer finance, with the second one to be insurance. "Cardif submitted the necessary papers in order to obtain the licence from CSA (Insurance Supervision Commission). The French will enter the market by this summer and will insure backup for Credisson with three types of policies - for short-term unemployment, for disease and for temporary inability to work," explained the quoted sources. Car dif annually receives gross premiums worth 13 billion euros, managing assets worth 87 billion euros at the end of last year. ZF