Financial Services, Insurance, Latvia

“The industry experienced significant growth last year. After a several years long interval, premiums grew faster than the amount of indemnities paid to clients,” the association’s president Janis Abasins said, noting that the growth was largely driven by motor third party liability (MTPL) and life insurance.

The highest amount of premiums was written in life insurance - EUR 115.13 million, up 18.2% from 2016 and accounting for 24.6% of the market.

Health insurance was the second most popular type of insurance with EUR 81.4 million worth of premiums written in 2017, up 9.9% from a year before (17.4% of the market). Mandatory MTPL insurance followed with EUR 81.2 million, up 42.9% (17.3%), motor own damage (MOD) insurance with EUR 79.1 million, up 12% (16.8%), and property insurance with EUR 64.8 million, up 19.8% (13.8%).

The highest amount of indemnities, worth EUR 67.6 million in total, were paid in life insurance at a 31.2% rise against 2016 (25% of the market). Health insurance followed with EUR 58.7 million, up 5.1% (21.7%), MOD insurance with EUR 55.9 million, up 8.2% (20.7%), MTPL insurance with EUR 49.2 million, up 6.2% (18.2%) and property insurance with EUR 23.6 million, down 9.2% (8.7%).

The above statistics include data from four non-life insurance companies and six branches of foreign insurance companies in Latvia, as well as four life insurance companies and four branches of foreign life insurers operating in Latvia.