ON PAPER, THE Brazilian insurance market looks vibrant: economic growth exceeds 5%; there are new products for an emerging middle class long starved of even basic products and new channels of distribution. And a slow legislative thaw is also helping generate strong revenues.
The market has been growing at a double-digit rate and is expected to continue to grow by about 15% a year until 2012, according to the Federação Nacional das Empresas de Seguros Privados e de Capitalização (Fenaseg), the industry body association. In five years, the outstanding in billed premiums will double from R$30 billion ($14 billion) and assets in the industry will reach R$400 billion, says Samuel Monteiro dos Santos Júnior, chief financial officer of Rio de Janeiro-based Grupo Bradesco de Seguros e Previdência, Brazil’s largest insurer.
Compared with insurance in developed markets,...
