Despite the unfolding events in the Middle East in general and in the Kingdom of Bahrain specific, the Insurance sector showed sustained patterns of growth during the first quarter of 2011, according to statistics released by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).
The total assets of insurance companies increased by six per cent to BD1.29 billion, compared to BD1.22 billion in the first quarter of 2010, where conventional insurance reported the highest contribution in total assets at the rate of 79 per cent.
The figures were released by the CBB in its quarterly results of insurance companies during the first quarter of 2011. The insurance market in the Kingdom of Bahrain consists of 27 domestic insurance companies and 11 branches of foreign insurance companies covering both direct insurance and reinsurance.
The recorded data for the insurance market during the first quarter of 2011 has shown a slight increase of 1.8% in gross written premiums in the Kingdom, from BD 55.7 million to BD 56.7 million in the first quarter of 2011. This growth was mainly due to the surge in the premiums of Life insurance and the remarkable growth of the Takaful.
It is worth noting that the Takaful industry in Bahrain has achieved remarkable growth, with total contributions (premiums) for Takaful companies growing by 16.5% to reach BD 13.4 million in the first quarter of 2011 compared with BD 11.5 million in the first quarter of 2010, while total premiums for traditional insurance companies reached BD 43.3 million in the first quarter of 2011 compared to 44.1 million Bahraini dinars in the first quarter of 2010.
The capital of both conventional and Takaful insurance companies grew by four per cent to reach BD 163.6 million in the first quarter of 2011 compared to BD 157.2 million in the first quarter of 2010.
As for the reinsurance market; the results of re-insurance companies that operate from the Kingdom of Bahrain show a rise in both reinsurance premiums and net profits during the first quarter of 2011, increasing reinsurance premiums by 5.6 percent to BD 151 million compared with BD 143 million in the first quarter of 2010. The net profit of reinsurance companies increased by 3.8% to reach BD 8.1 million compared to BD 7.8 million in the first quarter of 2010.
“The key indicators show that there has been minimal negative effect on the growth of Insurance companies due to recent events in the Kingdom of Bahrain, where indicators clearly show a rise in total insurance premiums, capital and assets of the insurance market in Bahrain, in addition to the remarkable growth of the Takaful insurance industry keeping up with the growth of both the direct insurance market or the reinsurance market in previous years,” the CBB in a statement added.