Latin American insurance market continues expansion: MAPFRE report

Latin American insurance market premium volume expanded by nearly 20% in 2010, according to a report released Monday by Madrid-based Fundación MAPFRE.

The “10th Edition of the Latin American Insurance Market” report analyzed the insurance markets in 19 Latin American countries. The report found that insurance premiums in the Latin American market increased 19.3% in 2010 to a total of €9.14 billion ($12.06 billion).

Fundación MAPFRE—which is sponsored by the Madrid-based insurance group MAPFRE S.A.—said the eight largest insurance markets accounted for 95.1% of premiums, and the three largest markets accounted for 67.1% of premiums.

“Brazil, with a 42.5% share, is still the largest market in the region, clearly exceeding the revenues from premiums of the two following countries, Mexico and Puerto Rico, which recovers the third position,” said the Fundacion MAPFRE in the statement.

“Overall, the report shows that 60% of the premiums achieved in 2010 in these markets correspond to the nonlife segment (€5.48 billion [$7.23 billion]), which grew 11.4%,” said Fundación MAPFRE in an English-language release announcing the study’s results. But the statement said “the major boost in 2010” came from the life insurance line, which grew 33.6% compared with the previous year and achieved €3.66 billion ($4.83 billion) in all the countries surveyed.

Fundación MAPFRE said its preview for the first half of 2011 showed that the industry achieved a premium volume of €5.04 billion ($6.65 billion) overall, which represents a nominal increase of 18.1% compared with the same period of 2010.

In the first half of 2011, 2010’s trend reversed and the nonlife sector recorded a larger growth rate—18.9%—than the life insurance sector, which grew by 16.8%.

The report will be available in English in the next few weeks, according to Fundación MAPFRE.