Risk Retention, Reinsurance Caps Announced

EghtesadOnline: The Central Insurance of Iran, the industry's regulator and one of its few reinsurers, has disclosed the latest risk retention and inward reinsurance capacity allowed for insurance companies. According to the latest list calculated based on the latest approved balance sheets of insurance companies published by IBENA on Saturday, Iran Insurance Company, the only fully state-run insurer and a major market force, once again kept it prominence and holds the highest allowed risk retention capacity at more than 17.75 trillion rials ($413.46 million).

News ID: ۷۸۳۱۹۶

08 July 2018

It is followed by Alborz and Asia insurance companies, in both of which the government holds a stake, with respective risk retention capacities of more than 2.71 trillion rials ($63.12 million) and 2.47 trillion rials ($57.53 million) respectively.

Private companies Parsian and Dana have made it to the top five list with allowed capacities of more than 2.13 trillion rials ($49.61 million) and 2.01 trillion rials ($46.82 million) respectively. In addition to the CII, only six insurers out of the total of 30 are allowed to accept reinsurance. Two of those, Amin Reinsurance Company and Iranian Reinsurance Company, are specialized reinsurers. Other firms are Iran, Pasargad, Mellat and Iran Moein. Iran Insurance is allowed to accept up to 8.88 trillion rials ($206.85 million) in reinsurance coverage and once more stands at the top.

Pasargad's reinsurance cap was set at 635.78 billion rials ($14.80 million) and Mellat came third with a capacity of 558.02 billion rials ($12.30 million), according to Financial Tribune.

As the final insurance company allowed to provide reinsurance services, Iran Moein is permitted by CII to accept up to 393.41 billion rials ($9.16 million) in reinsurance coverage.

The insurance industry's regulator has also advised insurers to pay attention to the level of financial strength of peers as announced by CII when considering the allowed risk retention cap as a critical criterion.