Photo by Yulian Donov

UNIQA Bulgaria will develop as a preferred and trusted partner and a stable, reliable, and modern company, says Ivana Dimova, General Manager, Member of the Management Board, and Executive Director of UNIQA and UNIQA Life. She started her career in 2006 at TBI Credit. Subsequently, she progressed through various senior management positions at TBI Bank and Generali, where she was mainly responsible for sales and product development. In 2016, she joined the team of UNIQA Bulgaria as the Director of Bancassurance. Since the beginning of 2021, she has been a member of the Executive Committee responsible for developing the Bancassurance Business Model. Since July 2022, Ivana Dimova has been General Manager, Member of the Management Board, and Executive Director of UNIQA AD and UNIQA Life AD.
 
How have people's attitudes towards Bulgaria’s insurance industry and insurance sector changed three decades later?

The introduction of innovations and the new manner of working during the last years under the sign of the pandemic have contributed to the positive growth of the whole industry. Customers’ motivation has changed, and their financial and insurance culture has evolved, thus creating a totally new image of the modern insurer. In the past, people were motivated to protect their vehicles or property, driven mainly by their fears. Today, the driving force behind contacting an insurer is prevention – our willingness to minimize the negative consequences of potential risks and be better prepared for unforeseen circumstances that could affect our financial situation.
 
When and how do people decide to contract insurance?

Cars are still the leading reason for insurance contracting, and the compulsory nature of Third-Party Liability Insurance also plays a role here. In voluntary Property Insurance, we only have 7% of households in the territory of Bulgaria protected.
 
These statistics on what we most commonly insure is a general picture for the whole region of South East Europe (SEE). In November, we launched a home insurance campaign that is being implemented simultaneously in all countries of the UNIQA SEE region: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the importance of home insurance, which is still not sufficiently appreciated in our country and is often regarded as an unnecessary expense despite the increasing frequency of adverse weather conditions and earthquakes with devastating consequences, such as those in Croatia in 2020.
 
In Bulgaria, unfortunately, when we talk about insurance, we still think of our health and life coming last. In the more developed European countries, a family plans as early as from the birth of their child what insurance options they should choose to provide to the new family member: from Child Health Insurance to Life Insurance for investment purposes, with the pertaining income to be used at some stage, say, for their education.
 
What distinguishes UNIQA in terms of work approach compared to your market competitors?

UNIQA Bulgaria has been recognized by our customers as a modern and flexible company that changes and grows together with the customer and puts their needs first.
 
We use state-of-the-art technology solutions to create more optimized work processes to enable our customers to receive 360 degrees of digital service – from the product and service request, through self-performed inspections in case of damage, to submitting claims entirely online and receiving the amount in case of an adverse event. Our goal is to increase the number of insurance solutions we offer to be fully digitally accessible so that we can manage them quickly, easily, and affordably via our mobile phones.
 
Through our new website and the new myUNIQA customer portal, we are accomplishing these goals and are progressing in the direction of developing more and more insurtech solutions, just as we have also been successfully developing our telemedicine app, MedUNIQA. It has increased its users by more than 15 thousand in just one year and amounts to more than 45 thousand to date.
 
This year we have also launched an innovative product for the market – the combined insurance UNIQA For Every Pocket, which enables everyone to take care of their health, home and vehicle at a specified price.
 
What will 2023 be like for the insurance sector and you in particular?

2023 is expected to be dynamic. Digitalization, personalization, and customer need analysis will continue to dominate the insurance sector. We expect more and more people to make a well-informed decision when seeking the services of an insurer and place prevention and care for life, health, and home among their priorities.
 
You have been running a sustainable business and earning the trust of your customers for 30 years. What have you accomplished, and in which direction do you want your company to keep growing?

We are grateful for the trust of our partners, our customers, and especially our colleagues! 30 years of living and working better together is not only our motto on the occasion of our 30th anniversary. We believe that each small positive step in our daily lives contributes to a better life and future for our society.
 
UNIQA Bulgaria will continue to develop as a preferred and trusted partner, and a stable, reliable, and modern company.
 
Photo by Yulian Donov
This content was first published on manager.bg.