Will stock exchange revive life insurance?

As part of life insurance from January to August, there was collected 63 504 000 AZN of premiums. According to the State Insurance Supervision Service under the Finance Ministry, it is about a quarter (25.2%) of total revenues.

Voluntary insurance on the account of three specialized insurers (Pasha Hayat Sigorta, Ateshgah Hayat Sigorta and Qala Hayat Sigorta) is 42.544 million manat, and for compulsory insurance there is 20.9 mln AZN in the segment of insurance against accidents and diseases at work.

An even smaller share of the insurance market is at life insurance payments (a total of 6.2% or 4.798 million manat as of August 1).

Since the beginning of the year, 28 insurance companies collected 251,710,000 manat with payments total of 77.964 million manat.

Turan was told by head of Azerbaijan Insurers Association Orkhan Bayramov the main factor hindering the development of life insurance is insufficiently developed securities market and limited opportunities for investment by insurance companies. They have nowhere to invest funds received from the public, except in bank deposits. In addition, the Central Bank has introduced a number of restrictions on investment objectives.

"If Stock Exchange and the securities market in general work on the full scale, then there will be an impetus for life insurance, or vice versa. Some of the mechanisms must be revived to give impetus to all the rest," concluded the financier.

According to Turan’s experts, while in the country there is no freedom of economy, no segment of the financial life will ever accept the world standards. -17D-