Dynamics of Development of Bankassurance ? Comparative Analysis of Croatian and European Countries

In this paper the authors have showed the dynamics of the development of bancassurance in Croatia in the 2007-2012 period. Moreover, the level of development of bank assurance in Croatia is compared with the level of development of bancassurance in some other European countries. The analysis showed that direct writing is by far the main distribution channel in Croatia with a more than 60% share, whilst bancassurance registered mild growth in the observed period and it reached 7% share in 2012. When this analysis is split on life and non-life insurance segment separately, we can conclude that bancassurance is less developed in non-life than in life insurance. In non-life insurance segment, the share of bancassurance ranges between 1% and 3.1%, whilst in the life insurance segment it reached 20% share in 2012. The similar trend is noticeable in other European countries covered by the analysis. More specifically, bancassurance plays a major role in life insurance, especially in southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy while it is quite rare in non-life insurance segment as well as in the central and eastern European markets.