Just Released: "Slovakia Insurance Report Q4 2013"
New Financial Services research report from Business Monitor International is now available from Fast Market Research
[USPRwire, Mon Sep 16 2013] As of mid-2013 it is clear that stability and resilience is being provided to the insurance sector of Slovakia by the local subsidiaries of regional/global multi-nationals which account for almost all of the activity. In spite of volatility in financial markets and a challenging economic environment, premiums have held up quite well in both the non-life and the life segments. To a greater extent than in most regional markets, there is pricing discipline. Particular companies are developing new products to which customers are responding well. However, both segments will remain small in absolute terms through the forecast period.
Key Insights And Key Risks
By the standards of its peers in Central and Eastern Europe, Slovakia's insurance sector is a relatively small market opportunity that is not growing quickly. Given the strong growth in life insurance in Poland in 2012, this is a fairly unexciting outcome.
Nevertheless, the results that were published by Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) and Allianz who, between them, account for about 60% of all premiums written in Slovakia, continue to highlight the clear strengths of the sector. In sharp contrast to most of Central and Eastern Europe, there has not been brutal competition in the markets for motor-related insurance (ie compulsory motorists' third party liability - CMTPL - and voluntary CASCO cover). The fact that life insurance premiums have been able to hold their own, at a time of very low interest rates and well publicised volatility in the eurozone's financial markets, suggests that the country's life insurers are providing attractive products to customers who remain convinced of the utility of life insurance. In non-life insurance operations, combined ratios remain fairly low.
What sets Slovakia apart from the other countries in the region is that both the non life and the life segments are a lot less fragmented. Collectively, the multi-national insurers who account for almost all of the activity in the insurance sector deliver economies of scale (from their regional or global operations), innovative products, an understanding of distribution and, perhaps most importantly, pricing discipline. The structure and performance of Slovakia's insurance sector at the beginning of 2013 is a reminder that a wave of consolidation may yet take place in many of the other markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
Over recent years, non-life penetration has fallen, while life density has stagnated. We consider that there are good reasons to look for both of these key metrics to begin to rise once more in coming years.
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