30% – 50 % Increase Registered in Motor Vehicle Insurance Premiums

The premiums on motor vehicle insurance have registered an increase. The Organization of Insurance Companies, ORINCO, convened several meetings earlier in the year to evaluate the performance of the insurance industry in Belize. Their studies found that the industry is operating at a loss of approximately four million dollars. As a result, ORINCO found it necessary to implement a thirty to fifty percent increase in motor vehicle insurance premiums. That increase came into effect on March first. Norman Moore, the President of ORINCO, and Andrew Roe, the Secretary of ORINCO, further explain.

Norman Moore

Norman Moore, President, ORINCO

“Since the pandemic happen we have seen dramatic increase in inflation and we have always tried to maintain our premiums at certain level. However, we have come to the reality that is not just going to happen. We can’t sustain the business by just leaving the premium where it is. You all will see it as just a fifty percent increase however, if you take for an example, I ran some numbers, and from last year in February 2022 to now, I did a comparison just on a regular fender bender, whenever the claims come through and I would usually vet them, as you see the amount you can immediately say that is a fender bender. So, back in 2022, say 2021, you are paying about three fifty for a minor fender bender, come now 2023 you are paying like six fifty, almost seven hundred. That is somewhere around seventy-two percent increase that we are seeing, just trying to repair the same damage that occurred just two years ago. We are trying to find that same money from that hundred dollars every three months to try and deal with that expense.”

Andrew Roe

Andrew Roe, Secretary, ORINCO

“To give you some statistics to put this into context, the motor insurance industry as a whole, everybody as a whole lost four million dollars from motor insurance. The supervisor of insurance publishes on a quarterly basis and shares the industry statistics with the insurance company. So, looking to that last year, that is what the insurance industry lost, four million dollars. Putiing it another way, the insurance industry needed to collect four million dollars more simply to break even, before looking at paying share holders and anything like that, four million dollars more. So, that is all a consequence of rapid inflation taking place over the last couple years.”