Paid claim losses by Iranian insurance firms grew by 20.7 percent year-on-year in the 11 months ending on Feb. 19, Eghtesad News reported.
During the period, 99,000 billion rials were paid as claim losses, of which private firms shouldered 58 percent while Iran Insurance as the sole state-owned firm accounted for 42 percent, the website said citing recent statistics on the insurance market.
Premiums
Forty-three percent of total written premiums belonged to compulsory third party motor vehicle insurance and 20.4 percent to health insurance.
Life insurance accounted for only 9.5 percent of the total written premium portfolio. The total written premiums during the period stood at 39.4 million, growing by 13 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.
Claim Losses
The insurance firms covered claim losses of 16.8 million cases. The figure rose by 15.1 percent compared with similar period last year. 52 percent of the cases were compensated by private insurance firms. Third party insurance, health insurance and life insurance respectively accounted for 43.7 percent, 29.4 percent and 6.3 percent of the paid losses cases.
Loss Ratio
The performance has translated into a loss ratio of about 55.6 percent for the whole industry during the discussed period. The figure dropped by 3.8 units compared with similar period last year.
The loss ratio is the ratio of total losses incurred in claims divided by the total collected premiums; the lower the number, the better the performance.
Among the nine leading insurance players in the market -- Iran, Asia, Alborz, Dana, Parsian, Kowsar, Pasargad, Moallem and Karafarin -- Dana and Iran insurance ranked higher than the market loss ratio with 68.3 percent and 63.7 percent respectively.
Similarly, loss ratio of four other insurance firms – Kish Protection & Indemnity Club, Sina, Novin and Dey – stood higher, respectively at 181.4 percent, 99.2 percent, 71.1 percent and 61.3 percent. The three major categories of third party, health and life insurance also registered loss ratios of over of that of the market, respectively with 80 percent, 56.5 percent and 56.1 percent.
