Insurance
From The Report: Kuwait 2015
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Kuwait’s insurance sector has posted solid expansion in recent years on the back of growth in a handful of key areas including takaful (Islamic insurance) and other non-life segments, with the industry as a whole bringing in $1.04bn in gross written premiums (GWPs) in 2014. The industry is a crowded one in Kuwait, with the top five insurers controlling around 60% of revenues at the end of 2013. The takaful segment has been active in the country since the early 1990s, and the most recent figures show that Kuwait’s 11 Islamic insurers brought in 18.7% of total GWPs in 2012. Meanwhile, the new health care system includes plans to cover expatriates, which accounted for an estimated 69% of the population as of the end of 2014.

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Overview

Premium growth: The sector is set to benefit from state investment projects and forthcoming regulatory changes
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Like much of Kuwait’s financial services industry, the insurance sector has posted solid expansion in recent years on the back of growth in a handful of key areas, including takaful (sharia-compliant insurance) and other non-life segments. In 2014 Kuwait’s insurance sector as a whole brought in an estimated KD303m ($1.04bn) in gross written premiums (GWPs), up 34% from 2011, according to data from the Middle East Insurance Review (MEIR), a Singapore-based firm. Statistics from Kuwait Financial…

Analysis

Rest assured: A new health care provider will initially serve the expatriate community
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On December 31, 2014 every citizen in Kuwait became a partial owner of the Kuwait Health Assurance Company (KHAC), a new private sector provider of medical insurance. Some 1.15m shares of the company – worth around KD230m ($792.4m) in total paid-up capital – were eventually distributed among nationals by the Kuwait Clearing Company, which handles transactions and settlements for the Kuwait Stock Exchange. These shares are equal to around 50% of the firm. The remaining half of KHAC is jointly…