The Russian insurance market will experience unprecedented pressure in 2009 - 2010 years because of recession - S & P. ??

The Russian insurance market is still in its formative stages and in 2009-2010. will experience unprecedented pressure in connection with a probable recession in the Russian economy. This is stated in the published report Standard & Poor's "For the Russian insurers come hard times" (RatingsDirect). The Russian Federation has a large number of insurance companies (as at 30 September 2008 more than 800), but the degree of market concentration is high enough. At the 10 largest insurance companies account for more than 60% of the gross premium. The rest of the market is fragmented and characterized by a large number of small, undercapitalized companies with a very small share of the market, experts say. Declining profitability of the sector, operating ratio, capital ratios, slow growth in insurance premiums. "We expect continued pressure on the insurance sector will provide the overall poor quality of the insurance investment portfolio (including bank deposits and corporate bonds). The sharp decline in liquidity and deterioration in asset quality in the banking sector will only exacerbate the problem, report says agency.