Evgeny Ufimtsev, RAMI: ‘People began to use their car more carefully’

All types of insurance showed significant growth in 2023

“The year 2023 turned out to be a better year for insurers. It has also become better for the consumer, because payments have increased (by about 20-25% compared to 2022 — ed.), and many good interesting products have appeared. An indicator of consumer assessment is that the number of complaints against insurance companies has decreased, according to the Bank of Russia. For us, these two trends — an increase in fees and a decrease in complaints — are very positive and correct," said Yevgeny Ufimtsev, the president of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers, during the Realnoe Vremya online conference. According to him, the decrease in complaints is due to that insurance companies adapt to the needs of consumers.

Last year, almost all types of insurance showed significant growth.

“Life insurance grew the most, in this segment there were the main fees and the main growth rates of insurers. This was also shown by the global trend. Indeed, life in the current difficult conditions is becoming a person's greatest asset, and it must be protected," he noted.

Voluntary car insurance, or casco, is in second place in popularity. Currently, 16% of car owners have such a policy.

“The driver here was the fact that, unlike 2022, 2023 finally became the year of the revival of new car sales. Yes, they are very expensive, but thanks to car loans and government subsidies, sales have revived. In some areas, we have seen the number of sales increase and the number of insurance contracts increase. At the same time, we must pay tribute to car insurers, who quickly adapted and began to offer a lot of full packed short products, the so-called mini-casco," the expert drew attention.

Unlike a regular casco (voluntary car insurance), its mini version is cheaper and is issued for individual cases, but also for a year. For example, to protect your car from owners who drive without an OSAGO policy — these, according to Ufimtsev, are now 5-7%.

In the third place is OSAGO (compulsory motor liability insurance), which, as mentioned earlier, is undergoing a serious transformation. The policy fell in price by 3% in December compared to January, the president of the RAMI said: “The average premium has increased, and the growth of OSAGO fees, too. But I must say that payments also increased — this is probably one of the important indicators.”

“Insurance is the protection of one's property, one's asset, in which a person invests. And a growth in these areas of activity shows that people are seriously concerned about the safety of their property. They are doing the right thing to protect, because the payments have also been growing. They will continue to grow," the expert predicted. The decrease in growth, according to him, is observed only in personal insurance and accident insurance.

Mini-casco — for whom and why

Evgeny Ufimtsev voiced two things related to the transformation of the car insurance market, which are now affecting the consumer. Firstly, the launch of the electronic settlement of OSAGO losses took place in the summer. So far, this is a voluntary option, it will become mandatory from January 1, 2025.

“It was immediately clear that consumers and insurers would actively use this already in 2023 and 2024" said the president of the RAMI.

The second significant change is the launch of short-term OSAGO policies from March 2. In the first two weeks, 1.5 thousand of them were sold.

“This is also a certain transformation, even if it is not revolutionary. It will begin to change the market evolutionarily, because those short products for different types of insurance will appear, which will no longer be linked to the annual, but to a shorter period of validity of the policy," Ufimtsev noted.

The main consumers are taxi drivers and carriers — especially those who earn extra money. Such a policy is also convenient for a family that has several vehicles — they drive one constantly, and the second only in summer or on weekends in nature. It may also be in demand from car transporters:

“We immediately said that such a new option is not for every participant. In the sense that it is not profitable for an ordinary car owner who simply uses one car per family and who benefits, it is more convenient and correct to buy a one-year policy," said the president of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers. The main sales of short-term OSAGO policies will fall in the summer.

People have become more careful on the roads

There are also several trends in car insurance that are related to expensive spare parts.

“Insurers have sharply increased the average payout by 17% and averaged 76 thousand rubles per year, but there were some months at the end of the year when it reached 90 thousand. If there were no insurers, it would be extremely difficult for the consumer to find money himself. The second trend (since in any accident there is both a victim and a culprit): we have seen how people began to operate their car more carefully. In general, the number of accidents in pieces in Russia has decreased. This suggests that people have begun to follow the rules of the road, take more care of cars," Yevgeny Ufimtsev noted.

To date, 44% of car owners have an almost maximum discount of about 50%.

“This is a very good trend. And in general, according to our data, 93% of drivers have some kind of discount, even a small one. This means that if they got into an accident, it was once all the time, and they accumulated good discount points," the President of the RSA stressed. Those who get into an accident more than twice a year are called marginal, only 0.01%.

They plan to start checking the OSAGO policy by cameras in 2024 — so far only for traffic violators

The work continues on a project to verify the availability of OSAGO policies through a photo and video recording system. It is led by a working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank.

“At first glance, the initiative seems quite simple, but there were problems. For example, it is necessary that the violation that is recorded by cameras be “continuous” — that is, that several fines are issued to the same person for one offense during the day. Besides, it was necessary to figure out who to issue a fine to and how to issue it: the owner of the car or the person who was driving at the time of the violation," said Yevgeny Ufimtsev. “Accordingly, the fine from the camera for the presence or absence of an OSAGO policy should come to the person who committed this offense.

According to the president of the RAMI, there are several innovations, and it is extremely difficult to introduce others without starting checking for the presence of an OSAGO policy for cameras.

“It is a pity that it was not introduced back in 2023. We really hope that this will be launched in 2024," Ufimtsev stressed the importance.

The check will be launched throughout the country, but at first it will concern only traffic violators. The availability of the policy will be checked through the RAMI database and, if it is not available, a fine will be issued to the person.

A single OSAGO policy may also appear in Kazakhstan

There is another innovation related to OSAGO: from October 1, 2024, the introduction of a single policy for Russia and Belarus is expected. Now work is underway to connect Kazakhstan to this system, and the accession of other countries is not excluded.

“Now the most important thing is to launch technically joint work between the two states. Then it will be easier to plan for other countries," concluded the president of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers.