GCC Insurance Daily
The day's insurance news across the GCC: regulation, governance, AI in insurance, and people moves. Curated, attributed, and linked to the source.
Top story
The QCB has granted its first authorisation for an insurance price-comparison website, to a firm named Ammen, taking the number of fintechs under its supervision to 16. Comparison platforms tend to sharpen price competition and squeeze intermediary margins, so brokers across the wider Gulf should watch how the Doha experiment develops.
Oman's listed insurers lifted first-half revenue 11% to OMR384.4m while profit after tax slipped 8% to OMR16.4m, on Badri Management Consultancy's read of preliminary results. Top-line momentum is holding, but margins now depend on underwriting discipline and investment returns rather than a rising tide.
Qatar Islamic Insurance reported first-half net profit down 13.4% to QR59.8m, with earnings per share easing to QR0.40 from QR0.46 a year earlier. A softer print against a strong 2025 comparative; the detail will show whether claims or investment income drove the drop.
Difficulty securing war-risk insurance is holding several European carriers back from restoring Dubai services even as traffic recovers, according to Bloomberg. A reminder that aviation and political-risk capacity, not just passenger demand, sets the pace of the region's reconnection when tensions run high.
AM Best has affirmed the financial-strength standing of Kuwait's Al Ahleia Insurance at 'Excellent', with the insurer posting pre-tax profit of about KWD29m and a 16% return on equity over recent years. A steady mark for one of Kuwait's larger carriers as the market absorbs slower premium growth.
Each item is a short editorial summary with a link to the original source. Items marked Rumour · unverified are unconfirmed and should be treated with caution. Compiled automatically; corrections welcome.