ICAR - The International CAtastrophic Risks Forum
Voluntary household insurance - alternative to an uncertain future
Romania is located, along with Afghanistan, Algeria and Congo, on the list of countries with high exposure to natural disasters and extreme weather phenomena, such as tropical cyclones, earthquakes, floods, landslides.

Despite all this, only 10% of the total number of houses in Romania benefit of protection through voluntary insurance, and the un-covered damages resulting from such a phenomenon are becoming an increasingly pressing issue.

And, for the situation to become even more worrisome, the Romanians are informed only to a small extent on the benefits of household insurance. This is the opinion of over 95% of respondents to one of the recent "Questions of the week" posted on www.1asig.ro, the most popular insurance website.

Fortunately, however, positive signs do exist: the panel study conducted by MEDNET Marketing Research Center in collaboration with Media XPRIMM, in April 2009, shows that 35.3% of the surveyed Romanians intend to buy an insurance in the near future. Of these, 53.9% want a household insurance.

In this context, Media XPRIMM, in partnership with the Ministry of Administration and Interior, organizes ICAR - International Catastrophic Risks Forum - Europe's main event on catastrophic risks.

The Sixth Edition of the event will be held on October 12, 2009 at the Parliament Palace and will focus both on ways to boost voluntary household insurance, and on various aspects regarding the implementation of mandatory household insurance.