Mutual Insurance as an Element of the Competitive Environment of the Insurance Market

The insurance market of the Russian Federation began to develop very recently, in historical terms, in 1988. New types of insurance have appeared - liability insurance, financial and business risk insurance, health insurance; the list of compulsory types of insurance is expanding. However, up to now, Russia's “insurance penetration rate” (the percentage of insurance premiums collected relative to gross domestic product) has been below not only the world average, but also the average for the group of developing countries (excluding Russia, which foreign analysts put in this group). It appears that the rapid development of the insurance market in the Russian Federation is hampered by the absence of a developed competitive environment on this market, due to the absolute predominance of commercial insurance and the almost complete absence of mutual insurance. The article is devoted to the justification of the role of mutual insurance in the formation of a developed competitive environment of the insurance market. To achieve this goal, the theoretical basis of identifying the competitive advantages of mutual insurance is set out; the role of mutual insurance in the formation of a developed competitive environment is shown on historical examples; the peculiarities of the formation of the competitive environment of the insurance market of the Russian Federation, due to the peculiarities of the historical development of our country, are revealed.