OREANDA-NEWS. On 17 April 2009 was announced, that Moscow hosted a conference called “Financing of small and medium-sized business 2009” and organized by Expert RA rating agency. The conference was attended by Nikolay Galushin, Deputy CEO of Ingosstrakh IJSC, who delivered a report dedicated to insurance as a system securing continuous production process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

In his report N. Galushin noted that currently about 80 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises order insurers’ services. Somewhat less than fifty percent of policy-holders are those having their vehicle and car fleet insured under the MTPL, whereas about a quarter of the insured are those buying hull insurance. Approximately the same proportion accounts for property insurance. Other types of insurance (voluntary medical insurance of employees, insurance of various types of liability, cargo transportation insurance, etc) make up a very small percentage. Thus, the primary reason for small businesses’ turning to an insurance company is mandatory insurance, while enterprises ordering insurers’ services on their own initiative is by far a less frequent phenomenon, which is mainly explained by the lack of insurance culture and SME awareness of insurance services and their price. Financial crisis also adds up to the slow penetration of insurance services into the SME segment.

According to N. Galushin, it is the time when many insurance companies are prepared to develop their relations with the SME segment because of the significant possibilities to enlarge the volumes of collected premiums due to the low level of penetration, building of adequate sales networks by insurers, unexpected intensification of competition and need to enter new client segments.

Major development trends for SME insurance may include the following:

property insurance;

business interruption insurance;

liability insurance;

cargo insurance;

accident insurance and voluntary medical insurance of employees.