INSURANCE
Emerging Stronger While Pivoting To Thrive The biggest markets for insurance in the region are Saudi Arabia and The UAE, and while the sector remains resilient in the face of challenging times - with increasing M&A activity and good growth prospects for Takaful - it faces the need to speed up digitalisation
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he insurance market in the Middle East region is proving to be remarkably resilient in the face of significantly reduced revenues due to the prolonged pandemic and the impact of business interruption disputes on insurers hit by the resulting class actions. Most insurers in the region seek to leverage the innovation that emerged following the outbreak of COVID-19 as
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business activity in the region continues to pick up on the back of a rebound in oil prices and the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions. “While 2021 saw the pandemic continue to shape the economic and political landscape, rising prices across all product lines, even those perceived as difficult, generated healthy top line growth for many insurance businesses,” said Clyde & Co.
The region’s ongoing economic recovery on the back of higher oil prices, government spending and increasing activity in the non-oil sector is expected to boost insurers’ gross written premiums (GWP) growth and growth prospects throughout the year. However, the sanctions that the US and its allies imposed on Russian energy imports after the invasion of Ukraine are driving inflationary pressures and reinsurance carriers are starting to feel the pinch of soaring operations costs. The UAE and Saudi Arabia remain the two biggest insurance markets in the Middle East with health insurance businesses dominating in both countries. The health division has been the fastestgrowing insurance product in the region following the implementation of compulsory cover in the UAE and Saudi Arabia since 2005 and 2006 respectively. Following the business trends that
Banking and Finance news in the MEA market
Rajesh Sethi, Chief Executive Officer,
