OREANDA-NEWS. According to the 2015 Review of Insurance Companies' Key Indicators, insurers' assets grew in 2015 by as much as 5%, having exceeded 1.6 trillion, with the assets to GDP ratio unchanged at 2%.

Behind the growing share of insurers' assets placed in bank deposits and invested in bonds was the attractiveness of fixed-yield instruments. Investment in equities, by contrast, declined.

Insurance premia rose by 3.3%, totalling over 1 trillion. This growth is mainly driven by the developments in the motor third-party liability insurance market. Exclusively of this market's rates, the nominal growth of the market would have been negative, on the backdrop of weakening investment activity and worsening consumer sentiment.

With the market still expanding, the past year saw a drop in the penetration of insurance services. The number of contracts fell by 11.4% in voluntary types of insurance and by 7.7% in mandatory ones.

With the demand for insurance services in decline, insurers were seeking to sustain their return on equity and reduce loss through budget cuts. As a result, the combined loss ratio (describing the efficiency of insurance activities) was down to 97.9%, while net profits rose to 91.7 billion, mainly on the back of investment market fluctuations as investment income was rising through higher deposit rates seen between late 2014 and early 2015, as well as through a recovery in the cost of financial assets.

In 2015, the Bank of Russia continued its efforts to enhance the insurance market's financial stability. The number of insurers fell by 70 to as many as 334. In the course of the year, licences were revoked from unscrupulous market players having no real assets and failing to comply with the required reserve ratios / capital requirements.