In a 2011 scenario of overall difficulty, with the Italian insurance market characterized by a marked contraction in premium income (-12,5% on 2010), brokers further increased their incidence: total premiums rose to 22,2 billion euro (+4% on 2010) for an overall market share of 21,1% (17% in 2010); in Non-Life business alone, brokers operating in Italy managed 17,7 billion euro, for a share of 48,9% (47,7% in 2010) out of the total of 36,3 billion.
Faced with a drop in the number of insurance agents operating in the area, the brokerage profession has experienced further expansion: at the end of 2011, 1.683 brokerage companies were registered in the RUI (Single Register of Intermediaries), with an increase of almost 10% compared to the 1.531 at the end of 2010.
These are the most relevant data on the trend of the brokerage market that emerged from theAIBA Annual Assembly (Italian Association of Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers) held today in Milan.
“These are significant data – he says the President of AIBA Francesco G. Paparella – even more interesting if linked to an overall trend in market funding in severe depression.
This demonstrates that brokers are capable, even in a difficult phase like the current one, of guaranteeing growth and employment. I am sure I can say that the current results demonstrate the real entrepreneurial and professional capacity of the entire category".
The Italian market of brokers
The Italian insurance market, according to data released by Isvap, recorded in 2011 a premium income of €110,2 billion, down 12,5% (-14,8% in real terms) compared to 125,9 billion in 2010.
The crisis mainly affects the Life business which significantly reduce their impact on the market, settling on the values recorded before 2008, with premium income that stops at 73,8 billion (-18% on 2010). After three years of continuous decline, the Non-Life business stabilized at the levels of the previous year at 36,3 billion (+1,4%).
Overall, the Non-Life business corresponds to 33% of total premium income on the Italian insurance market (it was 28,5% in 2010; 31,2% in 2009) and the premiums collected in the Motor TPL class alone represent 48,9% of the non-life classes and 16,1% of total premiums, with an increase of 4,7, XNUMX%.
Among the other classes, an increase in premiums was recorded by Legal Expenses (+4,2%), Assistance (+7,2%) and Pecuniary Losses (+9,1%). The rest of the coverage decreased compared to 2010.
Aiba represents 90% of the category in Italy by turnover
AIBA now has 1.136 member companies, including companies and sole proprietorships, which represent a turnover equal to 90% of the total managed by the Italian insurance brokerage market.
New European directive on insurance mediation
The new European directive on insurance intermediation (IMD2013) is expected for 2 and is currently being examined by the European Commission. The IMD2 regulation will revise the previous one (directive 2002/92/EC on insurance mediation) for the purposes of coordination with the provisions of Solvency II and the other EU directives which intervene, directly and indirectly, on the subject of the intermediation of insurance products and financial, such as those on e-commerce, distance selling and MIFID.
“We know that in the next few days the Commission will present the text of the proposal for a new directive on insurance intermediaries and the new regulation on PRIPS (Packaged Retail Insurance Products) will arrive almost at the same time”, said Francesco G. Paparella. "The joint action of the national associations and Bipar (European Federation of Insurance Intermediaries) has made it possible to have a text that places the disclosure obligations on the distributive uploads of direct insurance companies on the same level as those of intermediaries in terms of commissions . The indispensable objective remains the creation of equal conditions that do not privilege the interests of one category over another, one member country over another”.
