TEHRAN Iran has started accepting applications from foreign and local private insurance firms to set up in the country's free trade zones for the first time since the 1979 revolution, a senior official said on Monday.
Abdolnasser Hemmati, head of the state-run Bimeh Markazi Iran (Central Insurance of Iran), told reporters the government had recently approved guidelines allowing domestic and foreign investment in insurance in the trade zones, Reuters reported.
"The guidelines have been approved by the cabinet ... and from this moment we are prepared to issue licenses for foreign and private insurance companies to be registered in the free trade zones," Hemmati said.
Hemmati said insurance companies should have a minimum capital of 15 billion rials ($1.8 million) and reinsurance firms a capital of at least 85 billion rials. Representative offices of foreign insurance companies should have a capital of at least 300 million rials, he added.
Hemmati said Bimeh Markazi would supervise the activities of the new insurance companies but that the firms would be free to set their own rates.
He said insurance companies from Saudi Arabia and Sweden had already expressed interest, without naming the firms.