The portuguese insurance industry: basis for strategic process decision

• Author(s): Cruz, Manuel Mendes da ; Martins, Hélder Fanha
• Date: 2009
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/479
• Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
• Subject(s): Indústria seguradora; Seguros; Procura e oferta; Planeamento estratégico; Processo de decisão
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Nowadays, the Portuguese insurance industry operates in a market with a much more aggressive structure than a few decades ago. Markets and the economy have become globalised since the last decade of the 20th century. Market forces have gradually shifted – power is now mainly on the demand side. In order to meet the new requirements, the insurance industry must develop a strong strategic ability to respond to constant changes of the new international economic order.One of the basic aspects of this strategic development will focus on the ability to predict the future. We introduce the subject by briefly describing the sector, its organisational structure in the Portuguese market, and challenges arising from the development of the European Union. We then analyse the economic and financial structure of the sector. From this point of view, we aim at the possibility of designing models that could explain the demand for insurance, claims and technical reserves evolution. Such models, (even if based on the past), would resolve, at least partly, one of the greatest difficulties experienced by insurance companies when estimating the budget. Thus, we examine the existence of variables that explain the previous points, which are capable of forming a basis for designing models that are simple but efficient, and can be used for strategic planning.