Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 24 /Trend, A.Akhundov/
The securities market should be fully formed in order to increase the attractiveness of life insurance for insurers in Azerbaijan, director general of the Azerbaijani-Turkish Başak-Inam Sığorta Insurance Company Orkhan Hasanov told Trend. This will allow companies to diversify funds collected for life insurance, which are designed for the long-term period, in various financial instruments.
It is because of the lack of effective financial instruments, other than bank deposits, in which today the insurers invest most of their funds. According to Hasanov, there is a problem in assessing value of money in the life insurance market.
"There is no problem either with the client base, or with premiums from life insurance, but there is a problem of assessing the value of money," Hasanov said.
According to him, currently the insurance companies evaluate their money through banks, while banks also have problems with providing loans, interest rates are gradually declining.
"The securities market in Azerbaijan should be fully formed, the stock market should be accessible to people, and then, the problem of assessing the value of money will be solved," Hasanov said.
Today, there are four insurance companies in Azerbaijan - Paşa Sığorta, Atəşgah Həyat, Standard Insurance, and Ata Sığorta, who have the right to deal with life insurance. Currently, there are 27 insurance and one reinsurance companies in the country's insurance market.
In Western Europe and other countries with developed insurance markets, the share of life insurance premiums totals an average of 55-60 percent of total premiums. In Azerbaijan the figure was 0.86 percent as of Nov. 1.