Based on 3Q2018 data, Georgian insurer UNISON has improved its positions on the market and entered TOP-5 insurance companies in terms of GWP, according to the regulator's statistics.

According to Devi KHECHINASHVILI, Chairman of the Board, Georgian Insurance Association, Bank of Georgia is creating its own insurance company. The new insurer already received a permission from the National Bank and is going to apply to the State Insurance Supervision Service.

For 9 months this year Georgian insurers generated GEL 417.19 million of GWP (EUR 137.66 million), which in local currency is 20.67% more y-o-y. Paid claims for the same period increased by 26.71%, as the data published by the Insurance Supervisory Office of Georgia show.

"By global standards, insurance in Georgia is still immature - in the initial stages really - therefore there are many things that are yet to be done and the market has big potential," Giorgi BARATASHVILI, CEO of ALDAGI, told the FINANCIAL in an interview.

On January 1, 2019 in Georgia the article 5 of the law "On work safety" will come into force; based on it employers will be obliged at their expense to provide employees with industrial accident insurance.

The Georgian insurance market generated GWP in the amount of GEL 295.28 million (EUR 103.83 million) in the first half year, a 19.36% increase y-o-y, while the life sector increased by 69.36%, according to data from the Insurance Supervisory Office of Georgia.

Beginning in 2019, Georgia will change the model of financing within the General Health Insurance program. According to the Ministry of health the new system of reimbursement provides for transition to a model of diagnostically related groups (DRG), based on which a patient's diagnosis, age, length of hospitalization, and other criteria will determine the amount of funding, wrote Business Georgia.

Bulgaria's EUROINS Insurance Group (EIG) stated that it has acquired IC Group, one of the leading insurers in Georgia. The regulatory approval for the purchase agreement has already been granted.

According to preliminary data of the State Insurance Supervision Service of Georgia in the second quarter of this year, local insurers generated GEL 295.28 million (~EUR 103.47 million) of direct insurance premiums.

According to the Insurance State Supervision Service of Georgia total number of insured moto vehicles in the country as of the end of the second quarter 2018 amounted to 5.9%, while last year their average number was 5.2%.

Insurance should be accessible to all social classes, regardless of their wealth and income status. Products offered today are conventional insurance products, largely inspired from the developed markets as "one-size-fits-all" solutions, affordable to only middle- and high-income clients in the Eastern Europe's emerging & developing markets. The low insurance penetration rates across the region show the need for another approach.

The most important annual meeting of the Croatian insurers, the "Croatian Insurance Days", took place in Opatija, Croatia, on 7 - 9 November.

On November 1st, an Agricultural insurance conference took place in Skopje, Macedonia, organized by the Insurance Supervision Agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy. Drawing attention to the necessity of reducing the risks in agriculture by using insurance was the event's main purpose.

Emmanuel DJENGUE, Innovation Director, Europe - RGAX, Spain is the Keynote Speaker at IIF 2018 - Insurance in a DIGITAL WORLD Conference in Bucharest, on November 27.

Becoming a growing threat globally, cyber risks is both a challenge and an opportunity for the insurance industry. MUNICH Re's representatives talked to XPRIMM TV in Baden Baden, about the different approach to this type of risk that the Group, as one of the most active players on the cyber market solutions, proposes.

End investors, Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) funds, and buyers - the three groups active in ILS - have predominantly weathered 2017 loss activity with a view that reinsurance products backed by 'alternative' capital have become mainstream, according to a new Global ILS Market Survey by Willis Towers Watson.

Swiss Re expects the global reinsurance industry to consolidate as the distinction between insurers and reinsurers become increasingly blurred, an executive from the Swiss Group said in Baden Baden, reports Reuters.