Current quotas confine foreign stakes in Russian insurance companies to 25%, whereas the real share of non-residents in the country's insurance business is no higher than 4.5%.
Ilya Lomakin-Rumyantsev, head of the Federal Service for Insurance Oversight, said Russia could abolish or raise to 50% quotas on foreign stakes.
"I think it [the share] will be lifted, increased or replaced, for instance with more effective mechanisms not only restricting the stake in the authorized capital but also foreign physical presence," said Lomakin-Rumyantsev on the sidelines of a Russian-Swiss forum on regional cooperation in Geneva.
The official said the quota, which was introduced in 1999, was ineffective because the foreign share had never approached even half of the limit and was easy to circumvent.
He called for amendments to be drafted soon.
