In Q308, the key change is that we have incorporated much more information about the companies that are operating across the regions of which each country is a part. We have sought to make it much clearer who is operating in each country and under what name(s). Perhaps equally importantly, our profiles make it plain which multi-national companies are not operating in each country. We also discuss the regional presence of Belgium’s KBC and Austria’s Erste Bank through a number of insurance subsidiaries and explain the importance, for each of the various countries, of purely domestic firms. In the Middle East and North Africa, we profile 17 companies. These are AGF, AIG, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Cardif, ERGO, Eureko, Fortis, Generali, Groupama, HSBC Insurance, Liberty Mutual, MAPFRE, RSA, UNIQA and Zurich Financial Services.

We also look at a number of the smaller local firms that are active in the region, particularly in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. For almost all the countries whose reports we are updating, we are also able to include actual data for calendar 2007: this was not the case for our Q208 reports. We estimate that, in 2007, total premiums in Iran rose by 23% to IRR32,674,430mn. Non-life premiums rose by 23% to IRR30,572,705mn, while Life premiums rose by 29% to IRR2,101,725mn. Between now and the end of the forecast period, we expect that annual Non-life premiums will grow by IRR55,581,634mn, while annual Life premiums should increase by IRR 1,973,199mn. Growth in Nonlife premiums should be driven by the general growth in nominal GDP plus a rise in Non-life penetration from the current level of 1.22% to 1.30%. Growth in Life premiums should be driven by the change in the overall population and a rise in life density from US$2.95 to US$5.00 per capita. BMI’s Insurance Business Environment Rating is 35.2