Insurance Expert: 75 Trillion Tomans of Industry Funds Stuck in the Sales Network

Iran's insurance industry generated more than 372,000 billion tomans in premiums in the first quarter of this Iranian year, up 124 percent year on year, but about 75,000 billion tomans of that money remains stuck with certain agents and brokers and has not yet been transferred to insurance companies. According to Ecoiran, carried by Donya-e-Eqtesad, insurance industry expert Siamak Saharkhiz told Ecoiran the figure stems from premiums accumulating in the collection and settlement process.

The report said that, alongside this backlog, some insurance companies are facing liquidity problems and delays in paying claims, while about 3,000 billion tomans of third party auto insurance has been sold without the cash being collected. Ecoiran said the central question is whether the backlog stems from problems in the settlement mechanism or partly from misconduct by some sales network operators, and whether resolving it requires only warnings from Iran's Central Insurance regulator or a structural overhaul of the premium collection process.