A meeting was organized by the Insurance Association of Turkey and Competition Authority with the participation of Mehmet Şimşek - Deputy Prime Minister, Osman Çelik – Undersecretary of Treasury, Prof. Dr. Ömer Torlak – President of Turkish Competition Authority, Prof. Dr. Faruk Bilir – President of Personal Data Protection Authority, Ahmet Genç – Deputy Undersecretary of Treasury, Bureaucrats from the Undersecretariat of Treasury, Members of Turkish Competition Authority, and senior managers from the Insurance market.

During his presentation in the meeting, Can Akın Çağlar, President of the Insurance Association of Turkey, provided general information about the insurance market and underlined that the market played a vital role in economic growth. He stated that premium production reached 33 billion TL as of September 2017, with total asset size of the insurance market standing at 138 billion TL. He emphasized that insurance market funded the economy with its high growth potential, and provided 90 trillion TL of insurance coverage (35 times of the GDP) with its assurer role, particularly for mega projects.

Çağlar also informed about the payments made by the insurance market and said that the market paid 23.4 billion TL during previous year. He added that 50 thousand 803 claims were filed on a daily basis in 2017, for which the market paid 71.7 million TL on a daily basis. 
President Çağlar shared statistics about the Compulsory MTPL and Individual Pension System as the two hot topics of the market. Reminding that total MTPL (traffic insurance) losses of the last 11 years reached 7.3 billion TL, Çağlar said that 2.1 billion TL loss was estimated until the end of the year as a result of the new price cap system in traffic insurance. He underlined that they requested an increase in the tariff system at the minimum of inflation rate, and worked in collaboration with the judicial system to decrease the number of traffic accidents as a national problem.

Can Akın Çağlar also evaluated the latest developments in BES and Auto-Enrollment systems. He informed that the number of BES participants reached 6.9 million, with fund size standing at 74.8 billion TL, including state-subsidy funds. He added that 2.6 million of 6 million employees that entered the system via Auto-Enrolment -which was initiated at the beginning of this year- decided to stay in the system, and the withdrawal/exit rate was 57 percent.

Prof. Dr. Ömer Torlak, President of Turkish Competition Authority, said: “As Turkish Competition Authority, we ensure the existence of an efficient competition in insurance market, as in all other markets, in accordance with the Law no. 4054 on the Protection of Competition. We also consider it a significant advocacy of competition to search for solutions to the structural problems of the market in cooperation with the stakeholders from public and private sector.”

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek also gave a speech during the meeting. He said, ‘‘Finance sector is of vital importance for Turkish economy. In this respect, a strong improvement of the insurance market is highly important, as it makes a huge contribution to the finance industry. Premium per capita increased by 9.4 times; from 54.4 TL in 2002 up to 512.7 TL in 2016. In the last 15 years, Turkey grew by 5-6 percent despite internal and external shocks and continued in its course of global competition. We managed to recover from those shocks rapidly. We proved that we are a resilient country with our people, companies and economy. We are a nation that has protected democracy and its future. Problems in the surrounding geographies would soon be overcome. It is very clear that Turkey is robust; we provided employment for nearly 585 thousand people in 2016, despite the unfavorable circumstances. Our solution is willpower and progress. We make reforms; however, we can only overcome difficulties if we make them rapidly, profoundly and broadly. My message is short and clear. We face some challenges in the short term; there are negative perceptions and evaluations about Turkey for the short term. I agree that Turkey has some vulnerabilities, but we must not forget that Turkey has a strong maneuverability that can react to such shocks. Our strength prevails. Most importantly, Turkey has political stability. Turkey has a bright future with growth potential in all sectors. Insurance has one of the highest growth potentials. We will build together and grow together.”