Seven Foreign Insurers Waiting Market To Open
With the ratification of the Tratado Libre de COmercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the UNited States - the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) will eventually lose its monopoly on insurance in Costa Rica, opening the doors to competition.

La Republica, the daily Spanish language newspaper, reports that there are seven foreign insurance companies interested in the Costa Rican market once the insurance regulations change.

Companies like American International Group from the U.S., Spain's Grupo Mafre and Italian insurer Grupo Generali are including Costa Rica in their expansion plans.

The eventual opening of the insurance monopoly is seen as an apple ready for the picking by the international insurance companies who see Costa Rica as potential market for their services.

The foreign insurers are primarily interested in offering their services to businesses. Accident insurance is a secondary motivation to enter the Costa Rican market.

The foreign insurance companies interest in Costa Rica can be divided in three group; the large multinationals; Central American insurers; and, private bank who are already in Costa Rica and are looking to add insurance to their services.

American International Group (AIG) is a large American company offering insurance services in 100 countries; ING, America with head office in Holland, has offices in 95 countries, is also interested in Costa Rica in the short term. Grupo Generali, the Italian insurer, is already in 50 countries; and Grupo Mapfre of Spain already has an office in Costa Rica and 141 other offices in Latin America and Europe.

Companies like AIG has Costa Rica under watch, waiting for the government to open the insurance market to competition. Generali, for its part is set and ready, seeing Central America as one market and Costa Rica the missing piece, said Gabriel de Obarrio, Generali's general manager.

Others looking with wide eyes at the Costa Rican insurance market is the Caribbean insurer British American, who sees Costa Rica as a viable option to expand its operations. British American is already established in Panama and Costa Rica is a natural for the company.

Banistmo, by way of its insurance company Compañia Nacional de Seguros (CONASE) and Banex Seguros, already has a indirect link to Costa Rica. Banco Banex is one of the largest private banks in Costa Rica.

Banco Cuscatlan, already in the Costa Rican private banking market is also showing an interest of adding insurance, by recently buying Salvadorean insurance company Seguros e Inversiones S.A (SISA), which is the number private insurance company in the isthmus.