CADOAR: Premiums to hit US$366mn

The Dominican Republic's insurance industry has grown 30% this year through August with written premiums set to hit 12.5bn pesos (US$366mn) by year-end, local daily Listin Digital quoted president of the country's chamber for insurance and re-insurance companies (CADOAR) Jose Manuel Vargas as saying. Speaking at the XXIX Insurance Hemispheric Conference FIDES 2003 Vargas added that the Dominican insurance industry had made significant technical and professional advances throughout the various insurance segments despite certain "macroeconomic inconveniences." The inauguration of the country's new obligatory pension system this year "has launched new insurance coverage in the Dominican society such as annuities, life and invalidity policies," Vargas said, adding that the recent increase in the cost of reinsurance has been transformed by local insurers into a new opportunity to consolidate the country's insurance market. The Dominican insurance industry is today more competitive due to stricter regulations that have strengthened local insurers in terms of capital and liquidity, President Hipolito Mejia was quoted as saying at the opening of FIDES 2003 earlier this week.