OREANDA-NEWS. June 02, 2008. The city of Yekaterinburg has hosted an international insurance conference annually held by the Russian Union of Insurers. The conference’s general partner was Allianz, one of the oldest insurance companies. The conference’s organizers and participants were ROSNO and Allianz ROSNO Life — Russian companies belonging to the Allianz Group, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

In accordance with the tradition, among the participants of this year’s conference were representatives of the European insurance companies, insurers from Ukraine, Belarus, and the leading Russian providers of financial and insurance services. The Allianz Group was represented at the conference by Dr. Klaus Junker, CEO of Allianz New Europe and Executive Vice President of Allianz SE; Mr. Hannes Chopra, head of Allianz Eurasia and CEO of ROSNO, and Mr. Maxim Chernin, CEO of Allianz ROSNO Life.

The conference was opened by the Yekaterinburg Region’s Minister of Economy and Labour, Mr. Mikhail Maximov. In his welcoming speech, he announced the results of the development of insurance industry in the Yekaterinburg Region in 2007, and highlighted the growth rates shown by the regional market. Among the promising insurance fields, Mr. Maximov emphasized voluntary medical insurance and life insurance.

The report made by Dr. Klaus Junker highlighted preconditions for the global demographic processes that may affect development of the global financial industry. Among the principal forecasted trends are population growth and longer life expectancy. By 2050, average life expectancy in Europe and the United States will increase to 80 years, and the same in Asia will grow and reach 75 to 77 years, while the total world population will grow to 9б2 bn people. "The population is growing and ageing", concluded Dr. Junker.

"The ageing of the population will cause medical treatment to become more expensive, and this, in its turn, will entail larger public spending on financial security of old people. In this situation, providers of financial services have to assume responsibility for provision of pensions and develop modern financial instruments and insurance products oriented towards investing and saving", emphasized Dr. Junker.

In continuation of this issue, Mr. Maxim Chernin, CEO of Allianz ROSNO Life, made public the structure of Allianz revenue by various business fields. According to the provided data, life and health insurance accounts for 47% of the Allianz Group’s insurance portfolio, while 43% pertain to property insurance types.

The report also contained an analysis of the most rapidly growing insurance sectors, where the leading positions are held by property insurance and life and health insurance. In Russia, an average annual growth in life and health insurance sector is 157%. In terms of this indicator, Russia is ahead of China, where the average annual growth is 148%. The highest growth rate in this insurance type — 289% — has been recorded in India. In his report, Mr. Maxim Chernin focused on fact that today the most attractive and popular financial products worldwide are the combined insurance products. An example provided by Mr. Chernin demonstrated the advantages of the Unit Linked product, which combined life insurance and stock market investing. By conducting investment operations, clients can receiver significantly larger income than that from traditional life insurance.

During the conference, the participants shared their expertise in building regional sales, attracting new clients, managing sales channels, and evaluating their efficiency. Several reports were dedicated to improvements in the Russian insurance legislation. All market participants have acknowledged the need to modernize the financial market regulations in order to make the advanced financial instruments available to the larger number of Russian consumers.