Consolidation of the insurance market

The number of claims paid by insurance companies during 2022 was at an all-time high. The number of claims for compensation paid during the last year reached 55,705, for a total value of 6.25 billion ALL, or about 55 million euros.

According to the official data of this sector, in 2021 insurance companies handled and paid a total of 50,541 claims practices for a total value of about 6 billion ALL.

Last year also marked an increase in the number of claims paid for compulsory TPL motor insurance, which reached the value of ALL 3.27 billion, more than half of the total of all claims paid in the insurance market.

High claims payments during 2022 also brought a reduction in the stock of claims in pending status (still unpaid). At the end of last year, the number of pending claims of insurance companies was only 13.4% of all claims handled by them, the lowest level historically. This is also reflected in the decrease of about 20% in the number of pending claims practices, compared to the previous year. Thus, at the end of 2022, insurance companies had about 8,607 pending claims practices, up from 10,745 at the end of 2021.

Also, in 2022 there was an improvement in the situation regarding the Compensation Fund.

If before, the cases of the Compensation Fund brought confusion and delays, even sending cases to court, it is found that after the entry into force of the new law on insurance, in July 2021, until the end of 2022, no case of the compensation fund went to court..

The improvement of the situation was also influenced by the application of payments through the direct insurer, where 87% of compensation fund cases were resolved in this way.

Some of the advantages of direct compensation treatment:

- The quality of customer service increases

- The time for customer compensation is reduced

- Credibility towards the insurance market increases. Currently, if a company prolongs procedures, makes incorrect assessments and delays in paying compensation, then this affects the entire insurance market negatively.

- If every insurance company would treat its customer with speed and quality, this would affect the increase of reliability in the market and customers would also be offered for voluntary insurance (health or property).

- A more fair assessment is made for the damage caused, since for significant damage the expertise can be performed by experts from two companies (responsible and causative).

- Creates positive conditions for the growth of the voluntary insurance market, increasing the reliability of the insurance market in general.

Consolidation of the insurance market in Albania

The insurance market in Albania is already quite consolidated and offers citizens every insurance product offered by sister companies in Europe.

This was also proven after the earthquakes of 2019, where the insurance market assessed the damages caused and liquidated them in record time.

The monetary value of the claims paid in that period alone exceeds the figure of 40 million euros, which shows the consolidation and readiness of the liquidity of the insurance market in Albania, where they operate among the most serious companies in the country.

An important role in this direction has been given by the largest insurance companies in Austria and among the largest in Europe, "UNIQA Insurance Group" and "Vienna Insurance Group", present in the Albanian market for many years now.

The lowest costs in the region for insurance

According to experts, although healthy, the reasons why the insurance market does not attract many new investors should be seen, first of all, from its modest size and low costs to insure, in average terms.

With an average insurance premium of approximately 62 euros per capita, Albania remains one of the markets with the lowest insurance density in Europe.

In Europe, only Moldova had this lower indicator, with around 37 euros per capita.

Albania lags behind in the density of insurance in the population even compared to the neighboring countries of the Western Balkans. North Macedonia, about 89 euros per capita, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 127 euros per capita, Serbia 145 euros per capita and Montenegro, 159 euros per capita.