Central American Insurance Regulators Report On Market Performance

The Superintendencia de Bancos y Otras Instituciones Financieras (SIBOIF) (Nicaragua), Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero (SSF) (El Salvador) and Superintendencia de Bancos (Superban) (Guatemala) recently released insurance industry results for the first nine months of 2009. Taken together, the results confirm the significant impact that the global economic crisis, particularly as it has affected the United States, has negatively impacted Central American economies generally and insurance markets in particular.

In Nicaragua, the only of the three countries to see total premium growth year over year, total premiums grew 5.1% when comparing the first nine months of 2009 to the first nine months of 2008. This growth is down significantly from 2008, however, when the country saw 8.6% premium growth year over year. Total premiums for the first nine months of 2009 totaled US$ 83.3 million, with INISER (up 7.4%) and America (up 3.2%) sharing more than half of the