The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has recommended preliminary approval for granting licenses to five insurance companies. Also, there is an insurance company listed in the stock exchange but it has not been granted final permit to carry out its activities. Until the first quarter of 2009, the Council of Ministers had approved the establishment of 29 insurance companies to carry out insurance or reinsurance activity – 20 companies practicing insurance and re-insurance have been granted final permits while the Council of Ministers approved the establishment of eight other companies. An official source said SAMA has issued a number of organizational regulations for the insurance sector, the most important of which are code of ethics for the insurance market and statutes for combating deception and risk management. The Saudi insurance market has been tremendous growth last year with total insurance installments reaching SR10.9 billion, an increase of 27 percent compared to the previous year. The total demands paid to insured persons during 2008 reached SR5.2 billion registering an increase of 29 percent than the previous year. The total number of workers in the insurance sector until the end of 2008 exceeded 5447, Saudis forming 45 percent.
