Insurance Companies as Financial Intermediaries: World Experience and Opportunities for Ukraine

The article is to identify the features of construction of insurance business in foreign countries to use international experience in the organization of insurance companies as financial intermediaries in Ukraine. There are studied the approaches to the organization of insurance business in the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Japan. There are estimated the level of development of insurance activity in Ukraine. There are found that most domestic insurance companies are characterized having insolvency and low capitalization compared with the insurers of the European Union countries. Therefore Ukraine should learn from foreign experience in insurance, first of all changing its insurance legislation. Current solvency requirements (Solvency I) in Ukraine do not correspond to modern realities, and therefore it is appropriate to update them on the experience of the European Union. There are defined the core opportunities for domestic insurers as non-bank financial intermediaries, which they may receive from the participation of Ukraine in European economic integration, and there are outlined the obstacles that impede the development of the insurance market.