RIYADH, 18 September 2003 — Concerns over terrorism have led to an almost 178 percent increase in fire and property premiums for the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI), the Kingdom’s biggest cooperative insurance company.
A spokesman for NCCI told Arab News the company wrote fire and property premiums worth SR68.3 million in 2001 as against SR189.8 million last year. He attributed the dramatic surge to the hike in international insurance rates fuelled by mounting concerns over terrorism.
Next in line was motor insurance, for which NCCI wrote premiums worth SR148.1 million in 2001 rising to SR270.3 million last year, an 82.6 percent increase over the two-year period. He said the main reason for this was the launch of Rukhsa insurance, making insurance cover for the driving license mandatory. There was also a significant increase in car accidents during the period.
According to Ahmed Al-Shalaan, NCCI’s marketing services manager, the company covered 50 percent of daily motor accidents in the Kingdom, adding that the number of people detained by the police had also gone down as a result of the bail bond certificates.
Medical insurance declined from SR285 million in 2001 to SR237.7 million. He said the reason was that many new players entered the market during the year.
