NEW LIFE UNIT FROM INGOSSTRAKH

Russian insurer Ingosstrakh has established a new wholly owned life assurance operation called Zhizn, or Life. Edgar Pleskanovskii, who heads Ingosstrakh’s strategic development centre, has said that Zhizn offered only genuine life products and would engage in no payroll tax avoidance schemes — this in a context where less than $70m of the $3.4bn collected across the country in life premiums last year is thought to have been legitimate. Economic growth and the development of a middle class in Russia is said by Mr Pleskanovskii to have created a demand for life products. The unit has yet to receive a life licence, but is expected to be granted one shortly.