The Cyprus insurance sector, both life and non-life, continued to be dominated by bank owned firms, which in the first nine months of 2008 maintained their leading position in the market.
According to data from the Insurance Association of Cyprus, in the life sector, Eurolife, part of the Bank of Cyprus Group and Laiki Cyprialife, a member of the Marfin Popular Bank Group, jointly controlled 66.4% share of the market.
Eurolife was in the lead with a 34.5% share on gross premium income of EUR 70.73 mln, while Laiki Cyprialife with a 31.9% market share had gross premiums of EUR 65.36 mln in the first nine months of 2008. Both increased their market shares compared to a year earlier.
ALICO and Interlife also showed satisfactory growth in operations and market share.
The eight largest companies, representing 91% of the life insurance market, had premiums of EUR 226.75 mln in the first nine months of 2008, according to Insurance Association data. For 2007, the same group had total premiums of EUR 293 mln.
Non-life
In the non-life sector, the top three positions were held by bank-owned companies. Laiki Insurance (Marfin Popular Bank) commanded the lead with a 15.9% share and premiums of EUR 45.28 mln in the first nine months of 2008.
In second place was General Insurance Co. (Bank of Cyprus Group) with a market share of 11.9% and gross premiums of EUR 33.75 mln in 9M08, while in third was Pancyprian (Hellenic Bank Group) with premiums of EUR 25.3 mln and a market share of 8.9%.
Cosmos Insurance, the largest insurance company listed on the CSE, maintained its fourth ranking with premiums of EUR 21.6 mln in 9M08 and market share of 7.6%.
A strong performance was put in by American Home – AIG, which boosted premiums to EUR 16.4 mln in the first nine months of last year and with a market share of 5.8% may even overtake Universal Life.
The total premiums of the 18 non-life companies representing about 94.5% of the sector in the first nine months of 2008 amounted to EUR 284.25 mln, according to Insurance Association data. For 2007, the total premiums of the same group amounted to EUR 350.35 mln.
