REINSURANCE IN BELARUS: MARKET ANALYSIS AND NEW CHALLENGES IN MODERN CONDITIONS

Abstract

Background and Objective: Reinsurance plays an important role in ensuring the financial stability of the insurance company and is one of the effective mechanisms of risk management. Through reinsurance operations the insurer reduces the risk of losses from direct insurance; it creates a source of additional income for the insurance company, an opportunity to enter into insurance contracts for high sums insured, to enter new markets and new types of insurance, regulation of the ratio between the amount of equity and the volume of insurance operations. The aim of the study is to analyse the Belarusian reinsurance market and its adaptability to market uncertainty and sanctions.
Materials and methods: The analysis is based on data from the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian National Reinsurance Organization (BNRO). Methods of analysis and synthesis; comparative, systematic and statistical analysis; method of generalizations; graphical, etc. are used.
Results: The current state and structure of the reinsurance market in the Republic of Belarus for 2015–2020 is analyzed. The functioning of the BNRO and its impact on the Belarusian market is assessed. It gives the data reflecting the main problems of reinsurance in Belarus as well as the ways of their solution in the conditions of sanctions restrictions.
Practical implication: The results of the analysis will contribute to increasing the profitability of reinsurance in the country, the sustainability of the insurance market and the growth of insurance in the GDP of the Republic of Belarus, as well as to developing directions for the further development of reinsurance.

Conclusion and summary: Reinsurance in the Republic of Belarus is mainly focused on protection of small and medium sized risks and has an adequate infrastructure for this purpose. Belarus has insurance legislation in place, which is aimed at improving the quality of reinsurance activities and strengthening the sustainability of the reinsurance market. However, it also has a number of problems, the key ones being separate restrictions on ceded risks, prohibition on transfer of life insurance risks, etc. Equity capital both by reinsurers and by the market as a whole has a positive trend. However, the opposite situation was observed in comparable prices. The reason for the negative dynamics of the indicator is the gradual reduction in the number of insurers in the market. The facultative form of reinsurance contracts prevails in reinsurance in the Republic of Belarus. It may also be noted that the national practice is dominated by domestic reinsurance; during the period 2016–2020 more than half of the risks were ceded for reinsurance only to the insurance companies of the Republic of Belarus. This is due to the peculiarities of government regulation and current legislation. In addition, the reason is the country rating and, as a consequence, the rating of the Belarusian National Reinsurance Organization in the international reinsurance market, as well as the limited financial capacity of the reinsurer. The Belarusian insurance and reinsurance market
will develop under tough conditions in the coming years. due to a further decline in real household incomes, sanctions restrictions and insufficient insurance market capacity.