State Insurance Supervision Service predicts development of online insurance products sales
The State Insurance Supervision Service in Azerbaijan has predicted the development of online insurance products sales within 1-2 years, head Namig Khalilov said in an interview with Romanian PR-agency Media XPRIMM.
"At present, most insurance products are sold through the agency and partner channels," he said. "We expect online sales to develop for next 1-2 years."
He said that the development of retail and life insurance are the main priorities for Azerbaijan in the near future.
"Today the Azerbaijani insurance market is characterized by a low level of introducing insurance and high rates of this sector development, along with an increase in living standards," he said. "I believe that this situation creates great opportunities for insurance companies."
He said that the rapid development of the insurance market in 2011 (an increase in premiums by 37 percent) are associated with a number of such factors as the introduction of new types of compulsory insurance, an increase in the volume of bank loans, the growth of public interest in insurance products and so on.
"We expect this trend to continue in the future," Khalilov said.The law on "Mandatory types of insurance" regulates the four types of compulsory insurance - real estate, liability of motor vehicle owners, passenger insurance, liability insurance while exploiting the real estate.
The insurance companies have begun using this law since December 16, 2011.
The main difficulty in applying this law is to convince the public to insure their houses," he said. "The public service, insurance companies, local executive bodies are working to promote this type, which is gradually yielding results."There are 28 insurance and one reinsurance companies in Azerbaijan.
Media XPRIMM is PR agency serving the insurance and pensions market over 10 years. The markets of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the CIS countries are the company's main focus. The main areas of the company's activity are media coverage of the market and organizing several international events.
Media XPRIMM acted as one of the organizers of the Azerbaijan International Insurance Forum AIIF-2012 on "New Perspectives in the Caucasus Region", held in Baku on July 4-5.