Insurance Industry’s Four-Year Outlook

The president of the Central Insurance of Iran elaborated on the four-year outlook of Iran’s insurance industry through the end of President Hassan Rouhani’s second and final term in office.  

“According to our plans for the coming four years, the private sector’s share in Iran’s insurance industry will reach 65% while life insurance policies ought to account for at least 20.1% of all insurance policies,” Abdolnasser Hemmati was also quoted as saying by IBENA. The official noted that the annual insurance premium per capita will experience a 20% growth and the penetration ratio is set to reach 3.2%.

The CII chief mentioned the low share of life policies in the insurance portfolio, low annual premium per capita, heavy presence of government in the industry and the small scale of ties with international insurance players as major issues facing Iranian insurers.

“Direct and indirect taxes for insurance premiums, levying value-added tax on insurers’ earnings and regulatory barriers obstructing effective resources are the most important external issues of our insurance industry,” he added.

Hemmati noted that in order to neutralize the effects of sanctions, Iranian insurance companies have taken special measures like establishing reinsurance funds and also increased their risk capacity, which are effective and useful.

Insurance penetration rate stands at 2.07% while it is 25% for life policies. The penetration rate is reported at 1.82% for non-life business, according to Sigma, a research firm.

Based on a report by the Central Insurance of Iran in 2016, a total of 58.6 million insurance policies were issued in Iran and 32.5 million damage claims were compensated.