Life Insurance in Iran Underdeveloped
EghtesadOnline: The share of life insurance in the overall portfolio of the Iranian insurance industry is meager, a fact that a board member of Middle East Insurance Company, which specializes in life insurance, ascribes to the lack of an insurance culture in the country.
“In developed countries, at least 30% of people have life insurance policies but this number is next to nothing in Iran and stands only at about 3-4%,” Seyyed Hossein Salimi also told IBENA.
The executive, who is also deputy chairman of Middle East Bank, noted that while the banking system has made significant headways in the past few years, the insurance industry has failed to keep up.
“The people are still not receiving any education on insurance and cultural beliefs are not directed in a way to encourage the purchase of insurance policies even as it saves them when an accident happens,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.
Salimi, who is also deputy head of the Money and Capital Commission of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said remarks made by Abdolnasser Hakimi, director of Central Insurance of Iran, that the country’s uninsured risks amount to $3 trillion have been corroborated.
“Insurance companies also do not correctly inform the public on the variety of loss coverage services,” he concluded.