Abstract
Jordan and Lebanon together make a negligible market for insurance providers.
Our Insurance Business
Environment rating for both countries is low by
regional standards, and while premiums are growing at
more than 12% in
Jordan, for example, this is growth from a very low base.
The main
difference between the two countries is that life insurance has made far
greater inroads in
Lebanon than in Jordan, by virtue of its higher per
capita income and non-Muslim minority which does
not object to the concept
of life insurance. Almost certainly because per capita incomes in Lebanon
are
about three times what they are in Jordan and because Lebanon’s
sizeable non-Muslim minority does not
have a cultural aversion to life
insurance.
Given the size of the Jordan and Lebanon markets, future growth
(in premiums at least) could be
substantial, however predicting future
developments is problematic given a lack of general data. Lebanon,
however, with 53 registered insurance companies, can be considered the more
open and liberal market.
Regarding Jordan, life insurance premiums are so
tiny that even an unlikely explosion in insurance
density per capita would
not make much of a dent in our analysis of the country in 2013. Conversely,
its
well-established non-life insurance market could constrain future
growth.
As we said in last year’s report, the insurance sectors of
Jordan and Lebanon are highly fragmented. Few
if any insurers in either
country have double digit market share, as most are small,
domestically-owned
and managed businesses. This could present
opportunities for consolidation, and investment by major
global insurers,
but to date there has been little evidence of this.
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