Financial Services, Insurance, Latvia

The amount of gross premiums written by insurance companies in Latvia reached EUR 142 million in the first quarter, which is 13.5% more than in the first quarter of 2013. The amount of gross premiums written by foreign insurance companies' subsidiaries in Latvia grew by 21%, reaching EUR 39.6 million or 27.8% from the total amount of premiums.

The average solvency index for insurance companies slightly improved. For health insurance companies, the index was 183%, for non-life insurance companies – 177% (at the end of 2013 – 181.9 and 163% respectively).

In order to compensate the amount of indemnity claims, non-life insurance companies reduced their operational costs (mainly administrative costs), and the combined index, which characterizes the solvency factor, improved reaching 99.3% in the first quarter of 2014 (in the first quarter of 2013 – 102.1%).

Insurance companies operated with a profit of EUR 3.6 million, including non-life insurance companies – EUR 2.4 million, and life insurance companies – EUR 1.2 million. The profit was affected by the increase in the amount of premiums and the reduction of administrative and investment costs. In the first quarter of 2013, insurance companies' losses reached EUR 0.2 million.