Costa Rica’s local insurance market soared by 17% in 2010 as premiums grew from US$633 million in 2009 to US$739 million last year, according to figures recently released by the Insurance Superintendency. The market continues to be dominated by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), but other players, including Panama’s ASSA Compañia de Seguros, have increased their presence. The Insurance Superintendency also recently granted permission to Colombia’s Seguros Bolívar to participate in the local insurance market offering life and property & casualty products, and it has given preliminary authorisation to Mapfre’s Costa Rica unit to offer life products in addition to the property & casualty it already offers. Costa Rica opened its insurance market in 2008 with the Insurance Market Regulatory Act, which ended the 80-year monopoly of the INS over the insurance industry.