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Tuesday 18th October 2016
New figures from the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) confirm a continued strong financial performance in the global mutual and cooperative insurance industry.
The data ICMIF Global mutual and cooperative market infographic 2016 showed the mutual/cooperative insurance sector maintained its 27.0% global market share in 2015, showing steady growth from the 23.7% share recorded in 2007.
During the past year though the depreciation of most major currencies against the US dollar resulted in a 5% fall in aggregate premiums written by mutual and cooperative insurers to $1.2tn.
Despite this, the ICMIF said the mutual and cooperative sector remained the fastest-growing part of the global insurance market since 2007, with a cumulative growth of 21% in premium income during this period, compared to an 8% increase for the overall global insurance market.
It also looked at the social impact of its members, noting that more than 1.11m people were employed by the sector across the world and that it served more than 960m members or policyholders of mutual/cooperative insurers, a 10% growth over three years.
ICMIF chief executive Shaun Tarbuck said: "Mutual and cooperative insurers performed robustly in 2015 as they continued to expand their global reach, shown by a growth in the aggregate number of policyholders served and people employed around the world.
"The strong dollar in 2015 somewhat masked the financial performance of the sector, as there was not the strong increases in premium volumes, market share and total assets as we have consistently seen in previous years."
He said that despite this issue, mutuals and cooperatives held an important stake in the European and North American markets and a growing one in Africa and Latin America.
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