Fitch Ratings expects moderate growth in premiums in Costa Rica, increased interest in personal insurance in Guatemala, and stable performance in Nicaragua and Honduras.
From the report "Outlook 2015: Central American Insurance Sector":
Costa Rica:
Moderate growth in premiums
Since the Costa Rican insurance industry opened up to private competition in 2008, the market has experienced rapid and consistent growth in premiums.
In Central America microinsurance coverage is minimal, with rates well below the rest of Latin America.
Throughout the region, Guatemala leads they way in such services with 0.58%, followed by El Salvador (0.13%), Nicaragua (0.12%), Panama (0.06%) and Honduras (0.05%) . According to a study by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Salvadorans prefer micro-life insurance (112,000 people) and health insurance (78,000 people).
During the first half of 2012, the insurance sector in Latin America had a premium volume of $77,085 million, maintaining growth rates of two digits.
According to César Quevedo, deputy director of the Institute of Science at Seguro de Fundación Mapfre, the insurance industry is "key" to this global market.
On presenting the report, "The Latin American insurance market," the official noted that this "is a key region for the present and future in global insurance."
A report by Fitch notes the momentum in the insurance sector in Central America and its growth potential.
From the report by Fitch Central America is entitled "Performance of Insurance Industry Central America: Well Positioned for Growth ":
The insurance industry in Central America managed to increase premium production by 12% compared to 2010, where Panama, Guatemala and Honduras recorded an above-average growth.
The National Assembly has approved 90 articles of the future law that will facilitate the opening up of the Nicaraguan insurance market.
This law is a requirement for DR-CAFTA and was supposed to have been approved by April, four years after the trade agreement came into force.
The president of the Economic Commission of the Nicaraguan National Assembly, Wálmaro Gutiérrez, told Elnuevodiario.com.ni that, “we have an overdue obligation and responsibility to open up the insurance market so that foreign insurance providers can begin to offer their services”.
A bill expected to be passed next week would open the door for foreign insurers.
Congressman Wálmaro Gutierrez, from the committee that wrote the bill, explained that the insurance industry is currently regulated by a decree from 1970, which was reformed on several occasions. The last modification closed the insurance market to foreign participants.
The Comptroller General ruled that the National Insurance Institute can form a partnership with companies outside Costa Rica but not own them.
The subsidiary set up by the INS to operate outside the country, INS International SA, had already allocated funds to implement a plan that involved purchasing at least one company in each of the countries in the region to market insurance.