MANAMA, 6 March 2007 — The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) said yesterday that it has granted the German-based European insurance giant Allianz Group a license to establish an insurance operation in the Gulf island.
The new subsidiary Allianz Takaful (Bahrain) will serve as the Allianz Group’s global hub for Islamic insurance (Takaful). The new company is being established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Allianz Group.
Allianz Takaful (Bahrain) will undertake family Takaful, with a focus on life insurance, investment-linked insurance as well as health and medical insurance.
The Munich-based Allianz Group, founded in 1890, is today the largest insurer in Europe and the second largest in the world, with premiums of nearly $52 billion. Allianz is also one of the world’s largest asset managers, with assets in excess of $1 trillion under management.
The Group posted a net income of $9.2 billion in 2006.
Robust economic growth, renewed government investment in large infrastructure projects and strong private sector investment in real estate and other economic sectors are driving the expansion of the insurance sector in Bahrain. In addition, increasing acceptance about the need for insurance is also contributing to the growing demand for insurance products, both conventional and Islamic.
“Public perception on life insurance, in particular, has changed considerably with the introduction of Takaful and now represents a huge, fairly untapped opportunity,” said director of licensing and policy at the CBB Ahmed Al-Bassam.
The license for Allianz is the third to be granted by the CBB in recent months to an international insurance giant to establish a Takaful or Retakaful operation in Bahrain.
In October US insurance giant American International Group (AIG) launched the $15 million Islamic venture AIG Takaful, a regional company headquartered in Bahrain, providing Shariah-compliant insurance solutions (Takaful).
Last November the US-based international insurer ACE Group was granted a license by the CBB to establish a representative office in Bahrain, which serves as the ACE Group’s headquarters for the group’s existing subsidiaries and future operations in the MENA region.
The region’s insurance market continues to attract international insurance companies that began offering Shariah-compliant services to attract regional customers. The Gulf insurance market continues to grow rapidly.
