Premium return as stimulation - leaders of insurance companies spoke to Prime Minister of Serbia

(Mirko Cvetković)

At the meeting with Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković on January 29th, the representatives of life insurance companies presented the project for reform of regulations that would guarantee that the citizens who decide for long-term saving insurance products can count on return of 25% of the paid premium every year, which would stimulate development of life insurance in Serbia, while providing the funds for the government infrastructural projects at the same time.

Namely, as Nebojša Divljan, the CEO of Delta Generali Osiguranje, explained in the interview for Danas, if the state accepts that system based on French model, insurance companies will promise to invest the funds from the collected premium in long-term securities issued by the state, which will create capital that is necessary for big infrastructural projects. Although the issuing of such securities is in the pipeline, they are not present in the market at the moment, but Divljan points out that it would be in the interest of insurance companies, which currently have 200m EUR worth of bonds of old foreign currency savings in their possession, to have those papers replaced with the new bonds by the state.

According to Divljan's words, insurance companies do no insist on introduction of tax reliefs for investments in insurance, but they would like the authorities to accept the model that includes the return of 25% of the premium.

Divljan says that he is very satisfied with the meeting "since the Prime Minister professionally understands these problems", but he also says that insurance companies did not ask the Prime Minister yesterday to give concrete response to the presented proposal.