Dutch—based financial group FORTIS has announced recently its decision to leave the Russian insurance market, according to insur-today.ru.
"Insurance business in Russia does not fit in the group's strategy of development, set in the previous year, thus not being able to scientifically contribute to groups' revenue", stated FORTIS representatives in the press release. Also, they mentioned that this decision will not influence the company's performance and capacity of settling the claims.
FORTIS entered on the local market in 2007, and in the first six moths of the 2009 its subsidiaries FORTIS and FORTIS Life reported total written premiums of EUR 2,6 thousand and, respectively, EUR 218 thousand.
This is the second important European group that leaves the Russian market, considering that in late September, another Dutch-based company, ING, decided to close its operations on the life and pension segment and sold the businesses to another investor.
In the first nine months of this year, the Russian insurance market recorded a decline in premiums of 1,5%, in comparison to the same period of the last year, amounting to EUR 16,26 billion. At the same time, due to the crisis, life insurance segment fell 26,7%, to EUR 236 million.
