Insurers in Iran seek new Europe, Asian partners after US sanctions

Iran’s insurance industry is in talks with smaller firms from Europe and South Asia that have no business in the US to fill the vacuum left by the exodus of larger European insurers in the wake of renewed US sanctions, the head of the Islamic Republic’s insurance regulator said in an interview last week.

Gholamreza Soleymani, president of Central Insurance Iran, declined to name any potential new partners. Iran provided guarantees to support its $3.5bn domestic insurance industry and is considering legal action against foreign firms that cancelled their contracts, he said. Norway’s Assurance Foreningen Skuld paid 70% of a $30mn claim for an Iranian oil tanker that sank off the East China Sea in January, but Soleymani didn’t disclose details about the payment’s timing or how it was transferred to Iran. Iran’s Alborz Insurance is in the process of paying out the rest of the claim, he said. Policies that have been cancelled by foreign firms have been transferred to Iranian insurers under identical terms and rates.

Iran plans to start a national reinsurance company so that the industry can “stand on its own feet” if foreign companies abandon Iran in the future, Soleymani said. US sanctions crippled Iran’s crude exports, and the Donald Trump administration has warned other nations against doing business with Iran.