The National Bank of Serbia, Insurance Supervision Department, issued a report on the insurance sector in Serbia for Q3 2023. When it comes to market participants, there are no changes; at the end of Q3 2023, the insurance market in Serbia comprised twenty insurance and reinsurance companies.
Sixteen of these twenty were engaged in insurance activities only, and four were engaged in reinsurance activities. If we take a closer look at insurance companies, the report states that four were exclusive life insurers, six were exclusive non-life insurers, and six provided both life and non-life insurance.
When it comes to ownership in the insurance sector in Serbia for Q3 2023, fifteen insurance companies were in majority foreign ownership. This led to foreign-owned insurance and reinsurance companies holding majority shares of life insurance premiums (85.7%), non-life insurance premiums (61.0%), total assets (70.0%), and employment (64.8%).
Apart from insurance and reinsurance companies, there were also other participants in the insurance market, such as banks, financial lessors, insurance brokerages, insurance agents, and certified agents and brokers in insurance. The structure of these other participants in the insurance sector in Serbia for Q3 2023 was:
- 15 banks,
- 9 financial lessors and public postal operators who are licensed for insurance agency activities,
- 111 legal entities (insurance brokerage and agency services),
- 76 insurance agents (natural persons—entrepreneurs), and
- 4,323 active certified agents or brokers in insurance.
When it comes to insurance portfolio structure, the total premium in the insurance sector in Serbia for Q3 2023 amounted to RSD 115.6bn (EUR 986mln or USD 1,068mln), a rise of 16.3% relative to the same period last year. In the composition of the premium, the share of life insurance premiums dropped from 20.3% in Q3 2022 to 18.5% in Q3 2023, due to higher nominal growth in non-life insurance premiums than in life insurance premiums.
When examining the premium structure by type of insurance, Q3 2023 data somewhat resembled that of the same period in 2022. The largest share of the total premium (29.9%) was accounted for by motor vehicle liability insurance this time, followed by property insurance (19.2%), life insurance (18.5%), full coverage motor vehicle insurance (“kasko”) (10.6%), and voluntary health insurance (10%).
It is notable that motor third-party liability (MTPL) rose by 18.4% year over year in Q3 2023 and that three companies with the largest share in the MTPL insurance premium accounted for 58.1% of the market in Q3 2023, compared to 57.7% in the same period last year.