Yesterday, the prosecutors searched 49 "Omniasig" branches, on suspicions that the CEO and over other 40 executives forged over 1 million insurance policies, just one day after Peter Hagen, the head of Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), which the insurer belongs to, said that he was not worried by the state of the Romanian insurance market, which has been shaken lately by resounding scandals, such as Astra or Carpatica Asig. read more...

Insurance companies owned in Romania by Vienna Insurance Group recorded gross subscribed premiums of 134.5 million Euros, down 7% over the corresponding period of last year, and the losses of the group on the Romanian market fell to 2.7 million Euros. read more...

Romanian insurance companies and brokers will provide their prospective clients with additional information before signing them up for a life insurance policy, as of Wednesday, according to new rules issued by regulator CSA. read more...

The Romanian Parliament’s budget and finance committees on Tuesday endorsed Romeo Ionut Comaniciu for the position of president of insurance regulator CSA with 21 to 12 votes and one abstention. read more...

AXA Life Insurance, a company that entered the Romanian market last year, when French giant AXA took over Omniasig Life, plans to become one of the top five players on the life insurance market in terms of sales of new policies by 2014. read more...

Generali Asigurari paid last month a damage worth over 55.2 million lei for damages produced at the commercial complex Dragonul Rosu, the insurer announced. Even though this is the biggest damage paid off in Romania, this did not affect the financial stability of the company, Generali Asigurari General Director Marie Kovarova declared. In the same time, Generali Asigurari director said that the company is a powerful one and very stable financially. read more...

BCR Asigurări, ranking fifth on the general insurance market, ended last year with profit worth 14.4m lei (3.4m euros), after having cumulated losses of over 61m lei for two consecutive years. read more...

The ING group is preparing to close the services centre in Cluj opened just six months ago, for which 185 people had been recruited so far. read more...

Omniasig, the third largest insurer on the market, controlled by Austria's Vienna Insurance, last year derived gross income worth 21.8m lei (5.2m euros), down 58% from 2009, according to preliminary figures. The result is in line with IFRS. read more...

The earthquake in Japan could drive reinsurance costs up for Romanian companies, which in turn may increase their premiums for building insurance by 10-20% on the medium-term. read more...

Astra Asigurări, a company controlled by businessman Dan Adamescu, climbed to the top position of the ranking of Romanian insurance companies after underwriting 1.11 billion lei (264 million euros) in gross premiums last year, toppling Allianz-}iriac, which had filled the no.1 position for seven years. read more...

Romanian insurers will have to increase policy tariffs or reduce current spending if revenues on the car insurance segment continue to drop in 2011, insurer Allianz-Tiriac general manager Rangam Bir said Wednesday. read more...

Revenues on the Romanian mandatory civil liability car insurance RCA segment exceeded voluntary car insurance CASCO underwritten premiums in 2010, for the first time in the past ten years. read more...

Romanian homeowners who did not insure their homes by January 15, 2011, either through mandatory or voluntary insurance policies, may be fined 100 lei (EUR1=RON4.1869) to RON500 by local authorities, Pool of Insurance against Natural Disasters (PAID) general manager Marius Bulugea said Tuesday. read more...

Insurance companies' underwritten premiums fell by 5.7% last year, to 8.36 billion lei (1.98 billion euros), because of lower sales of auto policies, according to data of the Insurance Supervisory Commission (CSA). The insurers' business returned to the 2007 level, when they first exceeded the 2 billion-euro mark. read more...

Insurance companies Generali and Ardaf, controlled by Italian group Generali, will merge, but the brands and the sales networks of the two companies will be kept, announced the shareholder of the two companies. read more...

Claims settled by insurers for bodily injuries suffered in the wake of car accidents rose, as a weight in total indemnities paid for civil liability car insurance (RCA), around three times in 2010 year-on-year, in line with calculations based on data and estimates by the National Union of Insurers and Reinsurers in Romania (UNSAR). read more...

Most insurers on the Romanian market are not prepared financially for a new earthquake like the one in Bucharest in 1977, mainly because of the lack of reinsurance, said Cristian Constantinescu, president of the National Union of Romanian Insurance and Reinsurance Companies (UNSAR). read more...

The Romanian insurance market will decline at least 5% this year, in an optimistic scenario, as the number of civil liability car insurance policies and their prices will drop 20%, said Tuesday Cristian Constantinescu, head of the Romanian union of insurance and reinsurance companies. read more...

Austrian insurer Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), which controls Omniasig, Asirom, BCR Asigurări and BCR Asigurări de Viaţă on the Romanian market, underwrote gross premiums of 536 million euros from operations conducted in Romania, 12.8% less than in 2009. read more...