The indicators of insurers show that the economy of St. Petersburg is recovering at a slow pace, believes the vice-president of Rosgosstrakh LLC Evgeny Gurevich. According to Rosstat, in the first half of 2010, investments in fixed capital in Russia grew by 1.3% compared to the same period in 2009, while in St. Petersburg they fell by 9.3%. In St. Petersburg, 15% fewer foreign cars were sold in the first half of the year than a year earlier, Avtostat calculated. The volume of mortgage loans, according to the St. Petersburg Mortgage Agency, has almost doubled, but this is only half of the level of the first half of 2008.

Insurance premium collections in St. Petersburg in the first half of the year increased by 1% compared to the same period last year to 19.8 billion rubles (excluding compulsory medical insurance), while payments decreased by 9.1% to 9.3 billion rubles (excluding compulsory medical insurance), according to the Federal Service for Insurance Supervision (FSSN). The share of payments for the first half of the year amounted to 60.1% of the premiums collected, which is almost 7 percentage points less than a year earlier.

According to the Federal Insurance Service, Russian insurers increased their premiums by 5% (see article on page 07). Against this background, a 1% increase is stagnation, believes Lev Paneyakh, CEO of ASK. In 2008, premiums grew by almost 40%, and payments by 24%, he recalls. In 2009, the St. Petersburg market lost 11.1% of premiums, and payments grew by 26.5%. The decline stopped in the first quarter of 2010, when premiums grew by 2.4%.

Over the six months, life insurance premiums increased by 15.3% to RUB 236 million, OSAGO brought insurers RUB 2.9 billion in premiums (+7.4%), and OMS – RUB 9.8 billion (+16.7%). However, property insurance premiums fell by 4.1% to RUB 12 billion. The volume of payments in property insurance decreased by 8% to RUB 8 billion, in OSAGO – by 26% to RUB 1.4 billion, and in OMS – by 20.7% to RUB 9.3 billion. Many companies began to pay worse during the crisis, says Paneyakh. Insurers prefer to pay at the lower limit of the assessed damage, the savings are 10–15% compared to the pre-crisis level, another insurer estimated.

The volume of CASCO collections on average across the market fell by 10-15%, estimates Dmitry Sinishev, director of the auto insurance department at Rosgosstrakh North-West. According to him, the auto insurance market only began to revive in May. About 75% of contracts are concluded by individuals.

The volume of mortgage contracts in different companies has increased by an average of one and a half times, believes Vladimir Sergeenkov, head of the property and financial risks insurance department for individuals at the St. Petersburg branch of Sogaz; the growth rate is good, but lower than before the crisis. This year, half of Sogaz's collections are from mortgage contracts concluded 2-3 years ago, he says. The results of the second half of the year will differ little from the first; payments may increase slightly due to the aftermath of the hurricane in the Leningrad Region, Gurevich predicts.

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