Bahrain: 5 new insurance licences issued in the year to date
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2019
The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has granted five insurance licences since the beginning of this year until mid-August.
One licence is for a branch of the global health service and insurance company Cigna, said Mr Abdul Rahman Al Baker, executive director of financial institutions supervision at the CBB.
In addition, two insurance brokers and two actuaries were granted licences.
Mr Al Baker said the number of licensees in the insurance market in Bahrain reached 151 at the end of July. These include 23 local insurers and 13 branches of foreign insurance companies. Local insurers comprise 12 conventional insurers, six takaful companies, two reinsurers, two retakaful companies and a private subsidiary.
The insurance sector also includes 34 insurance brokers, four insurance consultancy offices and four administrative service offices for insurers, in addition to a number of registered experts, including 13 experts in loss adjusting, 31 actuaries, four representative offices and seven licences for supporting services for the sector.
The performance of the insurance market grew by 6% in 2018, with premiums reaching BHD284m ($755.3m), compared to BHD268.6m in 2017, Mr Al Baker told Al-Watan.
He added that the increase in premiums in 2018 was driven in part by engineering insurance which generated premiums of BHD22.6m in 2018, 39% higher compared to BHD16.3m in 2017. M
BHD1 = $2.66