THE PROFITS of insurance companies operating in Slovakia amounted to €155 million in 2012, which was a 20-percent drop compared to the previous year. The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) ascribes this decrease to particularly high profits earned by the insurers in 2011. The result recorded by insurance companies in 2012 is the third highest over the monitored history in terms of profitability, the SITA newswire reported.
After 2010 and 2011, with moderate increases in aggregate written premiums, i.e. the amount of premiums customers are required to pay for insurance policies written during the accounting period, 2012 brought a moderate decrease. The NBS attributes this drop especially to developments in the non-life insurance sector.
Aggregate written premiums amounted to €2.04 billion in 2012, a drop by 0.1 percent compared with 2011. Life insurance reported an increase by 1.7 percent to €1.11 billion, while other forms of insurance decreased by 2.3 percent to €0.92 billion.
The development in the life-insurance sector continued its 2011 trend in 2012. The central bank credits the increase in premiums especially to the strong growth in unit-linked insurance and supplementary insurance, while ‘classic’ life insurance again registered a decline in premiums as well as insurance policies. In the non-life insurance sector, written premiums for compulsory liability insurance, accident insurance and property insurance decreased.
