BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Yusif Aghayev – Trend:
The life insurance market is showing steady growth in Azerbaijan, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Central Bank.
In January 2020, the voluntary life insurance fees amounted to 16.2 million manat ($9.5 million), which is 4.7 million manat ($2.8 million) or 40.7 percent more than in January 2019.
At the same time, positive dynamics is observed in almost all positions.
Thus, survival insurance fees amounted to 13.3 million manat ($7.8 million) in January 2020, an increase of almost 59 percent compared to January 2019. The death insurance fees amounted to 2.9 million manat ($1.7 million) in January 2020, which do not differ from the fees in January 2019.
The fees on insurance against incurable diseases tripled in January 2020, reaching 20,200 manat ($11,882) as opposed to 6,700 manat ($3,941) in January 2019. Disability insurance fees decreased from 244,500 manat ($143,823) to 38,700 manat ($22,764).
“The interest in voluntary types of life insurance has revived,” Khayal Mammadkhanli, Azerbaijani expert in the field of insurance, said. “This has been greatly driven by the great decline in the life insurance market in 2019 due to legislative changes made in the endowment insurance in 2018, in accordance with which no more than 50 percent of the insured's income may be directed to endowment insurance. Many clients realized that despite the restrictions made on preferences of this type, it still remains more attractive instrument of investing compared to the bank deposits, especially – taking into account the situation in the banking sector.”