OREANDA-NEWS. January 29, 2010. According to preliminary statistic, the total amount paid by Ingosstrakh in indemnities in 2009 had reached 33.2 billion rubles, which is a 35% increase on the year 2008. This amount includes payments under direct insurance – a total of 30,8 billion rubles (a growth of 41%) and under the indirect reinsurance – 2,4 billion rubles (a drop of 16%).

Payments under voluntary insurance, other than life insurance, including indirect reinsurance (reinsurance obtained under the contract with the other insurer), were 29.9 billion rubles; including private insurance (except for life insurance) compensations of 5.9 billion rubles, property insurance compensations - 22,2 billion rubles, voluntary liability insurance compensations – 1.8 billion rubles respectively. Payments under compulsory motor third party liability insurance amounted to 3.3 billion rubles.

The largest amount paid over the past year were the 1.1 billion rubles paid in compensation to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Kosmicheskaya svyaz” due to the partial loss of the Express-AM2 spacecraft as a result of abnormalities in the operation of the solar panels turnover gear. This payment was also among the record compensations in the history of insurance companies in Russia.

The Snow Queen company had been paid 179 mln rubles by Ingosstrakh in compensation for the damages caused by a fire in one of its warehouses, which had occurred on the night of December 25 to 26, 2008. Another company that was able to promptly restore its activities thanks to an insurance compensation payment of 110 mln rubles received from Ingosstrakh in the course of the past year was OJSC LOMO. Over 100 mln rubles had been paid by our company in connection with the summer 2009 fire at the warehouse complex belonging to the Accord Group in Klimovsk.

In the ship insurance category the largest payment was the compensation in the amount of 930,400 US dollars paid in connection with the damage of the main engine of the Atlantic Leader vessel. Over 843,500 US dollars were paid by our company to another client in connection with the damage of the main engine of the St. Stephen ship detected during its passage from the Tianjin port in China to Turkey with a cargo of coal.

During the past year Ingosstrakh had also been faced with the need to settle payments in agricultural insurance cases. One of the major payments in this category was the compensation in the amount of 18.9 mln rubles paid to the agricultural CJSC Primorsky operating in the Nukutsky district of the Irkutsk region. The soil draught of the summer 2008 had resulted in the partial spring wheat crop failure.

In 2009 Ingosstrakh continued to make indemnity payments to its clients in connection with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The total amount in compensation for the lost property and incurred legal costs paid by the company since the day of the actual tragedy has reached 1 billion 695,000 US dollars. In 2010 the insurance company intends to pay the remaining amount, according to its share under the reinsurance agreement, the total amount of insurance compensation paid by Ingosstrakh will therefore reach 2 billion US dollars.

According to Alexander Grigoriev, the director general of OJSIC Ingosstrakh, “the key principle that our experts adhere to in their work is that the moment of truth – the crucial moment in the relations between the insurance company and the client comes exactly when the client is faced with an emergency situation. This is precisely when clients are able to ascertain whether their choice of the insurance partner and of the type of insurance coverage had been the right one. Despite the complicated economic situation of the past year and the notable growth in the number of payment defaults between insurance and re-insurance companies which had become the key tendency of 2009, Ingosstrakh had continued to fulfill the entire amount of its obligations before private and corporate clients”.

Ingosstrakh is a traditional leader in the Russian insurance market with regard to the size of insurance indemnity amounts. Over the 62 years of its operation the company has more than on one occasion paid record indemnity amounts in the history of insurance in Russia: Ingosstrakh had paid over 56 mln US dollars after the 1997 plane crash in Irkutsk; over 85 mln US dollars after the crash of the Coupon satellite – property of the Central Bank of Russia – in 1998; 75 mln US dollars to the Protec Centre after a major fire at the storehouse belonging to a retailer in pharmaceuticals in Moscow on May 14, 2006.