While household savings are rising, self-provision and financial consciousness is getting more important, insurers' revenues decline, recent data of the Hungarian Insurers Association (MABISz) shows.

The volume of gross premiums underwritten by the profile companies in Hungary has increased by only 1.6% in 2010, reaching about EUR 3 billion. "The evolution can be compared with the level of inflation of last year", said Zoltan PAAL, Vice President of the Insurers Association in Hungary, about these results.

Regarding the ecological disaster in Hungary, specialists warn that there is a real danger that pollution reaches the Danube and affects other countries, including Romania. "An event such as the ecological disaster in Hungary may lead to the bankruptcy of the industrial center, if it does not have insurance to cover these risks. If the responsible company goes bankrupt, the affected countries may turn against the country where that company is located", said Simon JOHNSON, Environmental Director of the AON Risk Solutions.

Hungarian insurance companies specialized on the life insurance market have wrote EUR 1 billion in premiums in the first nine months of 2009, a decrease by 21,3% in comparison to the same period of the last year. Thus, "financial market turmoil significantly reduced demand of life products in 2008 and the recessionary pressure on household income will further reduce this demand throughout 2009", stated Csaba VARGA, General Director of the Hungarian Supervisory Authority at the Vth International Congress "World Views for Life Insurance in Eastern Europe, CIS, and Asia", organized recently in Moscow by the RUSSIAN Polis Information Group.

Hungarian insurance market revenues fell by 13.3% to HUF 410.1 billion (EUR 1.48 billion) in the first half of 2009, compared to the same period of last year, according to Hungarian Insurers Association.

GROUPAMA set up a new insurance subsidiary in Hungary, under the name GROUPAMA Garancia Biztosito, and it became Hungary's fourth largest non-life insurer and the fifth largest life insurer. GROUPAMA aims to break into the top 3 insurers on the Hungarian market, having a competitive position and a strategic 20-year partnership with OTP Bank.