Head of the Central Bank of Iran Mohammad-Ebrahim Amin said on Tuesday that European insurance houses are ready to be present in Iranian market.
Amin told a press conference on Tuesday that in the post-JCPOA era, cooperation between Iranian and foreign insurance companies will be possible and any decision for distribution of risk will rest with the foreign parties.
He added that Iranian insurance bodies gained good experience during west’s unilateral sanctions against Iran and now in the post-JCPOA era, they can benefit from latest knowledge and experience of presence in international insurance markets and gaining international ranks.
‘Also, we can share opinion with foreign countries on making bigger risks suffered in the sanctions era which countered the logic of insurance.’
Referring to exchange of visits by delegations and envoys of various and major insurance bodies in the world, especially in Europe, to Iran, he said that European insurance offices are eager to be present in Iranian insurance industry and that European envoys have recently mulled ways of presence in the Iranian market despite bottlenecks.
He added that the companies have said they are ready to contribute to running big risks and they were briefed that conditions after removal of sanctions are totally different with the ones before them.
‘Iranian insurance offices have gained much experience in risk management and we expressed hope that relationships should not be one-sided and Iran will also be able to be present in international markets providing insurance services.’
‘Our experts need to undergo education on management of big risks and gain experience in such events as quake and tsunami as happened in Japan. To this end, many educational courses were held for insurance experts and more such courses will be held in partnership with the world’s distinguished insurance experts,’ Rouhani added.
As far as re-insurance services are concerned, he said, Iran is indeed in need of foreign insurance because Iran’s maximum insurance reserves range between 30,000 to 40,000 billion rials.
‘While the amount of damage in such big events as plane crash, flood and quake is at the level of billions of dollars and in the sanctions era, thanks God Almighty, no major damage was inflicted on the country,’ said the CBI head.