Vienna Insurance Group now active in 24 countries:

With the granting of the life insurance licence for Wiener Städtische zivotno osiguranje Podgorica a.d. by the Montenegrin authorities, the Vienna Insurance Group is continuing its market entry in this young country. Thanks to this decision, the group can now begin selling insurance products as planned through brokers and with its partner Erste Group. Hence, the Vienna Insurance Group is continuing to pursue its strategy and has expanded its geographical network to include a total of 24 countries in central and eastern Europe.

The insurance market in Montenegro

With a population of just over 670,000, Montenegro is one of the smaller markets in this region, but the insurance market there shows high development potential. This is illustrated by the market data: the insurance density (annual premiums per capita) is approximately 95 euros, while the insurance penetration (share of premiums in the GDP in percent) is approximately 1.8 percent. In comparison, in 2008 the EU-15 countries had an insurance penetration of 8.7 percent and an insurance density of more than 2,500 euros in this field.