Auto insurance in Russia

Negative impact on the car insurance market is exerted by factors as the devaluation of the ruble, the decrease in corporate insurance costs, the proliferation of fraud. Thus, the loss ratio for all types of insurance will remain level, except for Casco, which is the most vulnerable to the influence of the macroeconomic situation. The profitability of the CTP will remain unchanged, perhaps due to actions of regulator. Participants of the market of auto insurance plan to strengthen regulatory control reducing inflationary pressures on the profitability of auto insurance by implementation of «A common method of determining the amount of restoration costs with regard to the damaged vehicle». Insurers believe that the tariffs for CTP should be increased in averange by 15%. They also believe that the high level of fraud in the area of claims settlement in motor insurance prevents them to find additional revenue opportunities here.

Head of main administration of Bank of Russia for the Central Federal district Olga Polyakova notes that control of selling insurance policies is made online on a daily basis, in the course of which are cases of abuse, the imposition of products, incorrect calculation of the coefficient “bonus-malus”. In addition, the administration continues to receive a lot of complaints. For example, in the spring-summer of 2015 the vast majority of complaints on the imposition of additional services were registered in the Orel and Tula regions. The cost of insurance policies is strictly regulated, according to the Bank of Russia, it has lower and upper bounds. The largest market players tend to form the maximum tariffs for the border.

The market of compulsory motor insurance is influenced by the change of tariffs (by 23% in October 2014, by 40% in April 2015), increase of liability limits (from 120 thousand RUR up to 400 thousand RUR for property damage and from 160 thousand RUR up to 500 thousand RUR in life and health) and the extension of the tariff corridor (from 5% up to 20%).

Casco

In the first half of 2015 the number of CASCO policies fell by 25.3% compared to the same period of the last year to 1.9 million units. In the second half of 2015 is expected to decline contracts on CASCO insurance from 5 mln to 3.5-4 mln.

For the first half in the Casco segment the greatest reduction in payments is observed among all the segment of voluntary insurance compared to the same period in 2014: by 14,6% to 90,6 bln RUR. According to Deputy Director of the company “Alfa insurance” Tatyana Pouchkova, this reduction occurs because of lower sales of new cars. In 2015, OSAGO will be the main driver of the insurance market, according to Tatiana.

OSAGO (state obligatory insurance)

The leader in terms of growth contributions in the first half of 2015 is OSAGO 39,4% (up to 93,9 bln RUR), although the number of contracts fell by 7% (to 19 mln units).

Top 10 of Russia’s largest insurers OSAGO in January-September of 2015 gathered 80% of premiums or to 124.2 billion rubles, according to the Russian Union of insurers. At this rate of growth the top 10 companies on the market of compulsory insurance were higher than the market in General (60% against 48%). The four leaders in terms of premiums OSAGO remained the same as a year earlier: “Rosgosstrakh” (54,6 bln RUR, growth 49,5%). The company increased market share for January-September 2015 to 35,1%, while the results of the same period last year it amounted to 34.7%. In second place is the insurance company “RESO-Guarantee”, the volume of premiums amounts to 19.8 billion rubles (growth by 66,9%), market share – 12,7% (in January-September 2014 – 11,3%). Third place – the company “VSK”, whose growth was greatest in the top ten: 123% or 13 bln RUR. The share of “VSK” for January-September 2015 was 8.4% (instead of 5.5% for the same period in 2014).

Leading companies in the collection of premiums for CTP in the first 9 months of 2015:

Just according to the Central Bank on the territory of the Russian Federation auto owners were disbursed insurance indemnities to the amount 3 074 847 rubles, including 1 458 337 RUR for premiums, carried out in the framework of international insurance systems “Green card”. If we consider the territorial distribution, the majority of contracts of insurance, like the largest amounts of premiums were concluded in Moscow and St. Petersburg, 1 261 535 RUR and 637 509 RUR accordingly. Below is a ranking of the top 50 companies by number of concluded contracts of insurance and coinsurance on voluntary insurance of land transport.

A promising future trend in the market of auto insurance is to promote “smart” insurance, which experts in the near future predicts a rapid growth. Thus, the special telematics device installed in your vehicle, will be able in real time to record and transmit data about the condition of the car and manner of driving, on the basis of what the decision will be taken as the insured event, and the size of the insurance premium. At the moment the Casco with a telematics device on the Russian market offer such companies, like Alfastrakhovanie, “Ingosstrakh”, “InTouch Insurance”, “It Is Important. New insurance” “URALSIB insurance” and “liberty Insurance”. According to J’son & PartnersConsulting, the total volume of the market of “smart” insurance will be in 2015 no more than 30 000 policies, and by 2020 it will reach 3.3 million active policies (penetration – 52%).

Sources: KPMG in Russia and CIS The changes keep coming: an overview of the insurance market in Russia June 2015 kpmg.ru, Fira-Rosstat, Autostat, http://www.finmarket.ru, J’son & Partners Consulting, http://www.banki.ru, http://www.cbr.ru