Lack of sufficient banking correspondent relations is one key constraint to domestic insurance companies developing normal ties with their foreign peers because processing premiums and claims are undertaken through bank accounts, said Mina Sedigh Nouhi, Central Insurance company of Iran deputy for reinsurance affairs.
“With the expansion of correspondent banking relations, the insurance sector will be able to relink with foreign operators,” she said, adding that the Central Bank of Iran has promised that opening accounts in foreign banks would start soon,” risknews reported on Monday.
Nouhi pointed to Munich RE as the largest foreign insurance company eying Iran’s market and said “We are getting ready to start working relations with the German insurer.”
Munich RE is a major reinsurance company with a gross premium of $41 billion.
“Slovenia’s Sava RE is also keen on working with Iran. We have held several meetings to discuss the ways and means of collaboration.”
Sava Re is a Slovenian/international insurance group present in more than 80 insurance and reinsurance markets across the globe. The company owns ten insurance companies, which makes it one of the biggest insurance groups in southeast Europe.
Enhancing Ties
The official added that CII has held talks with some 300 foreign insurance companies since the lifting of sanctions in January. “We are closing in on agreements with insurers from UK, Germany, Slovenia, Algeria and Iraq that will be finalized in the near future.”
Sedigh Nouhi said Iran and South Africa had signed one of the most important insurance agreements during the South African delegation’s visit to Tehran on Sunday. She did not elaborate.
Nouhi also said some European insurance firms have started to cover foreign tankers that transport Iranian oil. “This is a positive move; however, they still do not cover Iranian tankers.”
The International Group (IG) of protection and indemnity clubs announced last week it had obtained an increased limit of €100 million ($112 million) for its Iran “fall-back” cover, the group announced on Friday.
With a premium value of $9 billion, Iran is already one of the biggest primary insurance markets in the MENA region, according to Munich RE .For the period up to 2025, premium income is expected to grow by between 5% and 6% per year on average after adjustment for inflation, yielding a premium volume equivalent to $ 9 billion.
