Doha: Takaful insurance companies in Qatar have registered growth last year as their assets rose by 4 percent to QR2.33bn on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, according to the Islamic Finance Report 2021 published recently.
The performance of Takaful insurance companies and the results of the activities of Islamic financial institutions for the year 2021 was discussed in the fifth annual report on Islamic finance in Qatar published by Bait Al Mashura Financial Consulting Company.
“Many insurance companies operate under the supervision of Qatar Central Bank (QCB), including five independent Takaful insurance companies, namely: Qatar Islamic Insurance Company, Alkhaleej Takaful Insurance Company, Damaan Islamic Insurance (Beema), General Takaful Company of the General Insurance and Reinsurance Company, and Doha Takaful Company of Doha Insurance Group. Five national domestic insurance companies and four branches of foreign conventional insurance companies also operate in this sector, in addition to representatives of four domestic insurance companies,” the report stated.
“The assets of policyholders in Islamic Takaful companies amounted to QR2.33bn in 2021, compared to QR2.23bn in 2020, with an increase of 4.4 percent. Doha Takaful achieved the highest positive growth rate in policyholders’ assets in 2021 with a growth rate of 19.3 percent, followed by General Takaful at 14.5 percent, policyholders’ assets at (Beema) grew by 7.6 percent, and Islamic insurance by 1 percent, while policyholders’ assets at AlKhaleej Takaful Insurance decreased by 5.6 percent compared to 2020,” it added.
Over the past five years (2017-2021), the compound annual growth rate of policyholders’ assets in Takaful insurance company was 5.4 percent, the compound annual growth rate of policyholders’ assets in Doha Takaful was 17.2 percent, followed by Qatar Islamic Insurance Group (7.7 percent), Takaful AlKhaleej (5 percent), and Beema (4.6percent), while the compound growth in General Takaful was marginal at 0.1 percent.
Regarding the Takaful insurance subscriptions in 2021 in Qatar, the report said that it has increased by 7.4 percent, reaching QR1.4bn. General Takaful achieved the highest growth rate of insurance subscriptions by 14.6 percent, followed by Beema at 12.7 percent, Islamic insurance grew by 7 percent, Doha Takaful by 2.7 percent, while AlKhaleej Insurance contributions decreased marginally by 0.6 percent compared to 2020.
During the five years (2017-2021), insurance subscriptions grew at a compound annual growth rate of 3 percent, the highest growth was seen in Doha Takaful at a rate of 14.7 percent, followed by Islamic Insurance at of 6.2 percent. Beema’s growth rate during the period amounted to 2.5 percent, while General Takaful reached 2.4 percent, and AlKhaleej Company achieved 1.2 percent.
“Takaful insurance companies in Qatar continued to achieve insurance surpluses, which amounted to a total of QR113m in 2021. All Takaful insurance companies achieved insurance surpluses during the year. Beema achieved the highest insurance surplus during the year 2021, amounted to QR49.5m, followed by Islamic Insurance with a surplus of QR44.7m, General Takaful with QR10.7m, Doha Takaful with QR5.2m, and AlKhaleej with QR3m. During the five years (2017-2021), the results of Takaful insurance companies varied between insurance surpluses and deficits,” the annual report stated.
In 2021, Islamic finance assets in Qatar grew by 20 percent, reaching QR629bn ($172bn), of which Islamic banks accounted for 87 percent of such assets, and Islamic Sukuk accounted for 11.6 percent. In the Islamic banking sector, the assets of Islamic banks in 2021 grew by 12.6 percent to reach QR507.4bn, deposits grew by 17.5 percent, private sector deposits accounted for 54 percent, financing increased by 8.7percent, heading more towards the government sector and the real estate sector, followed by personal finance, while revenues increased by 2.6percent, and profits reached almost QR7.5bn with a growth rate of 10.7 percent.
