Iraq

Providing expert analysis, independent market insight and company data on the insurance industry.

Insurance market reports are produced following a country visit with interviews with professionals working in the sector with systematic updates to information throughout the cycle. Covering market developments, macroeconomic factors and comprehensive details of the regulatory environment including relevant taxation as well as market indicators and company statistics.

Axco’s Iraq Non-Life Insurance Market Report (P&C) also comprises a detailed analysis of lines of business and sub-classes such as natural hazards, property, construction and machinery breakdown, motor, workers compensation & employers’ liability and liability.

The Life & Benefits Report for Iraq includes detail on social security, healthcare, individual life assurance and pensions information as well as market statistics and life company statistics

Key Benefits

• Superior market insights
• Crucial compliance information
• Risk assessment and profitability

Information for Iraq can be seen in:

British insurers set up agencies in Baghdad and Basra after Mesopotamia was captured  from the Ottoman Turks and became British Mandated Territory. In 1921 the first law on insurance was enacted, parts of which are still in force.

Iraq's recent history has inevitably meant substantial disruption and change for the economy as a whole and the insurance market in particular. In the past 25 years, Iraq has gone from being a nationalised and sophisticated insurance market to being a mixture of private and state-owned insurers with new commercial and insurance legislation, the abolition of premium tariffs and the loss of substantial expertise.

Since 2013 it has appeared that in both Iraq as a whole and in the Kurdistan region the authorities discouraged attempts to form new insurers by imposing a minimum capital outlays for life and/or non-life business. In 2020 it was reported that there were two state insurance companies, 31 private insurance companies in Baghdad and five private insurance companies in Kurdistan.