Belgium Insurance, Companies & Insurance Quote

Innovation is the key instrument in Belgium insurance and high emphasis is put in the recent years on the non-life insurance sector in this country. Conversely, the insurance supervisory authority commission is the regulatory body in the sector of Belgium insurance.

Insurance status

Insurance products with minimum but guaranteed returns are popular. The guaranteed returns life insurance policies are the popular types of contract accounting in 2003 for more than 80% life insurance premium.

Owing to severe competitions, this increased and the traditionally the interest rates were higher in comparison to the average guaranteed rates. Owing to this, the insurers found it difficult to acquire enough investment income to meet the obligations.

Insurance Providers

The insurance providers in Belgium include life insurance companies namely, Ethias Life Insurance, AXA Belgium Insurance, INF Insurance, Les Assurances de Fortis Banque Insurance, Fortis AG, Delta Lloyd Life Insurance and AGF Belgium Insurance.

Insurance in Belgium also includes major non-life insurance companies such as AXA Belgium Insurance, KBC Assurances, AGF Belgium Insurance, Fortis AG Insurance, ING Insurance and DKV Belgium Insurance.

Despite having well-developed insurance market, insurance providers in Belgium present a low level of compliance with ICPs.

However, weaknesses were recognized with respect to prudential requirements, consumer protection, on-site inspections, fraud, suitability of persons and disclosure requirements.

FSSA emphasized on the requirement to upgrade insurance supervision, especially in the areas regarding solvency and to consolidate supervision by establishing effective mechanism so that they realize the potential of growing numbers.

Nevertheless, the overall framework of supervisory is constantly being upgraded in line keeping with 2005 IMF recommendations and insurance providers in Belgian are working towards accomplishing success.

Functions

The companies offering insurance in Belgium are the groups of the cross-border bancassurance that dictate the Belgian financial system as per FSSA, 2006. However, the sector of insurance in Belgium is relatively smaller in comparison to other countries and EU is 15 averages as total premiums.

Belgium functions on a consolidated supervision system under the banking, finance and insurance commission known as CBFA. CBFA is an International Association of Insurance supervisor’s member and as per FSSA, the supervisory practices of insurance in Belgium were benchmarked by Insurance core principles and the methodology was revised by IAIS in 2003.