Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 2 / Trend U.Ismayilova /
A second specialized company engaged exclusively in life insurance - Qala Heyat has been created in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani Finance Ministry's State Insurance Supervision Service Head Namig Khalilov said.
"Qala Heyat is created on the basis of the insurance company Qala Sigorta. Thus, the insurance country's market had the second Life-company after Atesgah Heyat," Khalilov said.
Qala Sigorta Company's actuarial Rauf Tagiyev said Qala Sigorta's non-life portfolio was distributed among several local companies after conversion. As of Nov.1, the company's premiums amounted to 0.11 million manat with payments of 0.01 million manat.
The State Insurance service issued a license to Qala Heyat on Nov.30, 2010.
The company's activities on building a life insurance portfolio will be launched from zero.
The Ministry Finance issued a license to JSC "Qala Sigorta" for conducting insurance activities on July 31, 2008. The founder of the company is the only reinsurance company in Azerbaijan "AZRE Tekrarsigorta". The authorized capital is 3.5 million manat.
Today, four insurance companies - Pasha Sigorta, Ateshgah Life, Standard Insurance, and Ata Sigorta - have the right to engage in life insurance in Azerbaijan, Khalilov said.
The insurance companies, except the specialized Ateshgah Life and Qala Heyat, which had the right to engage in life insurance and comply with the requirement of capital (the charter capital, in this case should be twice the regulatory capital requirements) under the law "On insurance activity", may continue activities in this direction up to March 15, 2011. This moratorium was imposed for three years. The law provides for the creation of specialized life insurance companies, which should contribute to the development of the market.
Of these companies Pasha Sigorta and Ata Sigorta are also working towards establishing specialized Life-companies and they have already appealed to the State Insurance.
According to the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry, the total amount of life insurance premiums in the country hit 1.127 million manat with payments of more than 278,000 manat during January - October 2010. While premiums for non-life insurance amounted to 101.72 million manat with payments of 33.94 million manat.
The official exchange rate is 0.8 manat to $2 Dec. 2.