Revenue from premiums paid by customers to receive insurance did not decrease in the pandemic year 2020, despite the entire collapse of the insurance industry. At the same time, the costs for paid amounts of damages have decreased, which can be explained given the pandemic, commented the financial analyst Petar Iliev in the studio of the show Money.bg on Bulgaria ON AIR TV.
“A success for the insurance companies is that the income from the premiums has not decreased. I expected bad results in the income of the insurers from the main business in Bulgaria, which is 68-70% of the motor vehicles, but this did not happen because even the blockages do not stop people from traveling “he said. According to him, this is the basis for the rapid spread of the infection.
“We cannot see exactly which insurances are growing, as the BNB statistics include players – branches of foreign insurance companies in Bulgaria, which are not included in the general statistics of the FSC on the gross premium income of insurers”, pointed out Iliev /
Tourism insurance
According to Iliev, they have fallen by 50%, but when an insurance product forms 1% of the profit, it does not affect significantly.
“Official figures do not show how much insurance the tour operators paid to cover their risks, as they complain that their business is over.”he said. “When an industry claims to give 10% of a country’s GDP, it should give at least 5% of gross premium income to insurers to ensure the security of its customers.”
According to him, when the directive related to tour operators is adopted in 2015, which requires changes in the Tourism Act, they are discussed at length and raises the question of the need to create a guarantee fund for tour operators, which ultimately does not was done.
“In February, they asked the government to give them BGN 69 million to set up this fund, or for the taxpayers’ money to go to cover what they have not done.”, says Iliev.
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