Austrian insurer Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) said Tuesday its pre-tax profit in Romania amounted to EUR 500,000 in the first quarter from a loss of EUR 2.9 million in the same period of last year, due to the restructuring of the business, while the volume of gross written premiums has continued to drop.
The insurer, which controls in Romania Omniasig VIG, Asirom and BCR Asigurari de Viata, has seen gross written premiums drop by 18.6 percent to EUR 82.4 million. The life segment shrank 40.3 percent to EUR 13.7 million, while on property and casualty VIG has lost 10.7 percent to EUR 236 million in gross written premiums
The combined ratio, which is the ratio between the amount of money VIG collected in premiums and what it paid for claims, shrank by 7.8 percentage points to 105.8 percent.
The group has registered in Romania the sharpest drop in gross written premiums. Overall VIG’s written premiums rose 1 percent year-on-year to EUR 2.7 billion.
Omniasig VIG is currently grappling in a fraud allegations, after the police stormed their offices earlier this month. Prosecutors said that the insurer’s general manager Mihai Tecau along 40 directors have allegedly falsified over one million insurance policies.
The insurer said in a statement that investigators were checking out the mandatory home insurance premiums issued in the second half of 2013.
Ovidiu Posirca