FINANCIAL SERVICES WATCHDOG URGES INSURERS TO TAKE ACTION IN ORDER TO AVERT CRISIS
Date: 24.03.2016. Section: News LIOU, ActualThe Ukrainian insurance market should come to agreement today, otherwise it will be too late tomorrow. There is no time for discussions, a member of the national commission for financial service markets regulation Oleksandr Zaletov said at a roundtable organized by the Maibutne magazine in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“The market should come to agreement, or it will be too late tomorrow. We even do not have the groundwork for 2017-2018. Even if the bill on insurance that has been included in the parliament’s agenda 14 times is passed, it is impossible to draw up bylaws by the end of the year,” he said.
He said that top priorities for the market functioning should be selected.
“We need anti-crisis actions. If we cannot amend the law, we should initiate amendments to the cabinet resolution. There is a regulator if it fails with the cabinet. We are open for discussion. We can take global projects, for example, mandatory medical insurance, but can we cope with projects that would bring results in five or 20 years?” Zaletov said.
He said that insurance companies will ‘eat’ each other amid the slump of market drivers – car, personal and medical insurance. There are two options: to leave the situation as it is or draw up measures required for market growth and expanding its potential.
He suggests that one or several largest players could leave the market this year. This would affect the market.
Zaletov said that the insurance market in 2015 collected around UAH 30 billion of gross insurance premiums. The companies’ assets decreased by UAH 10 billion.
Revenue from financial operations shrank by $80 million in 2015 and by 75%, compared to 2008.