Although 2022 was a difficult year for the whole of Ukraine and for the insurance industry, it did not become a verdict – the industry survived, insurance did not disappear, insurers generally have a slight decline by 2021, and some even have a very good increase.
This was written by Vyacheslav Havrylenko, CEO of ARX Life Insurance Company, Deputy Chairman of the Board of ARX, in a column published by Interfax-Ukraine.
Risk insurance market
In numbers, in 2022, the market fell by about 11% compared to the previous year, which is very good in a time of war. If we look at the market without the Green Card, the drop will be 17%, which is also a satisfactory result. These are preliminary data based on information from members of the National Insurance Association of Ukraine.
The Green Card has become the leader in insurance, with growth of 152% (due to the massive departure of Ukrainians abroad, especially at the beginning of the war). The volume of premiums was stable, with only a slight drop of 3%. Health insurance fell by 16%. The biggest drop was in hull insurance – 20% year-on-year.
Travel insurance grew by almost 42%. Property insurance (in the corporate segment) was also a surprise – our premiums fell by only 25%, although we did not expect such a moderate drop. One of the reasons is that global insurance programs have largely disappeared and customers have turned to local insurers. The market benefited from this.
If we describe the behavior of customers, we can say that although the demand has dropped (due to financial difficulties, the inability to insure at all in parts of Ukraine, the catastrophic drop in new car sales and the drop in car loans), it has not disappeared at all – customers felt the need for insurance. Ordinary insured events have not disappeared, and insurers compensate customers for their losses. In 2022, ARX paid UAH 826 million in indemnities, and we continue to make payments under the contracts of the previous year.
Life insurance
Regarding the life market, we can state that, just like in non-life, the market withstood in 2022. At the same time, the total premiums of all life companies in general showed a 14% decrease compared to the previous year. Some companies experienced a bigger drop, but some showed a slight increase. The composition of the main players has not changed over the past year.
While overall there was a moderate drop in payment volumes, in the non-lending individual insurance segment, we even grew by 5% compared to 2021.
Corporate insurance showed an increase of 10%. As for clients, our portfolio amounted to more than 430 thousand clients in 2022. Unfortunately, this is a clear decline in the total number of clients compared to the previous year. Therefore, we are focused on retaining customers and focus on reliable and high-quality service – we take care of our partners and customers every day.
We ended last year with a profit of UAH 25 million, which is more than 2 times higher than in 2021. As for payments, we collected almost UAH 270 million, which, unfortunately, means a 16% decrease in payments in general compared to the total fees of the previous year.
But overall, we are optimistic about the future. For example, in 2022, we launched a new product called “Armor Protection”, which is accident insurance that includes military risks. So it’s definitely not time to stop.
What to expect in 2023
Regarding plans for 2023, it is clear that it is impossible to predict how the situation with the war and the economy will develop (although we are optimistic), but we must plan our activities. So we will try to achieve a year-on-year growth of 22% to 23%.
Of course, these are average figures, and they will differ for different types of insurance, sales channels and regions of Ukraine. Perhaps this is a somewhat ambitious plan, but we see it as such. We will see what happens in reality; in January we fulfilled our plan.
We do not foresee a significant increase in new car sales this year and do not forecast a significant increase in the share of car loans in these sales. Therefore, we continue to focus our sales on car insurance without loans, including used car insurance – it is clear that these will be not only full hull insurance programs. In particular, we continue to actively develop online sales and hybrid sales (transfer of online leads to sales offices and call centers). We are also actively working with cross-selling to MTPL customers, but the main resource for many companies will be the renewal and retention of their own base of existing customers.
Therefore, we will continue to focus on high quality of service, development of additional in-house services, and will prove our main advantage – true fundamental reliability.
Against the backdrop of the war, falling demand, and financial difficulties, the NBU continues its systematic and systematic work to oversee companies’ compliance with financial standards. So, all together, all insurers are pushing all insurers to work profitably (otherwise there will be a lack of capital) and form reserves with the proper assets, but at the same time constantly improve the quality of their services and not try to achieve profitability by “cutting” justified payments to customers; continue to move further into digitalization, but reduce operating costs.
Undoubtedly, some companies will leave the market due to the factors described above, but almost all large companies with Ukrainian capital and all international companies will remain in the market. In general, customers will benefit because the reliability of insurers and the quality of their services are increasing.
