Iran Insurance Growth at 20%

The collective figure of Iranian insurance companies’ premiums during the first half of the current fiscal year to Sept. 22 has reached 166 trillion rials ($4.15 billion), which indicates an increase of 20% compared with the corresponding period of last year.

According to the president of the Central Insurance of Iran, this growth was achieved through the persistent efforts of Iranian insurance companies while Iranians also began to show more interest in buying more insurance policies.

“Iranian insurance companies sold more than 22 trillion rials ($550 million) worth of life policies during the first six months of the current Iranian year (started March 21) to mark a growth of 35% year-on-year,” Abdolnasser Hemmati was also quoted as saying by CII’s news website.

As the regulator of Iran’s insurance industry, CII has been working on implementing structural changes in insurers’ reserves. It has required insurers to split life and non-life reserves to enhance the efficiency of their investments and prevent any possible losses in future.

Iran’s top insurance official announced that during the aforementioned period, car insurance premiums also registered a 23% increase compared to previous year’s figure while the growth in this field was not more than 8% in last year’s corresponding period.

“Premiums from fire insurance policies have marked an increase of 20% during the six-month period while the growth in this field did not exceed 10% during the last year’s same period of time, which shows that recently people are more inclined to cover themselves with this kind of insurance,” he said.

Hemmati noted that insurance companies’ losses, in tandem with premiums’ growth, registered a 20% increase.

However, losses of fire insurance policies marked a year-on-year leap of 120% during the first half of the current fiscal while growth in fire insurance premiums was no more than 35%, which can notably change the risk calculation in the field.

 The significant growth in fire policy losses could be as a result of the massive blaze that ravaged Bou Ali Petrochemical Complex, located in the southern Mahshahr Port, which made the consortium of Iranian insurance companies to pay €94 million as compensation for the biggest loss in the country’s petrochemical industries.

Hemmati noted that during the first six months of the current Iranian year, the growth of premiums from third-party insurance policies was equal to the increase in the field’s losses at 12%.