Insurance companies' establishment hindered

Setting up an insurance company has been blocked since April 2000, due to the absence of the Insurance Supervision Commission, authorised to endorse such operations and regulate the market.

Two of the companies that found themselves hindered by this were Agricultural Life and Agricultural Insurance, two Greek-capital insurers part of the Agricultural Bank of Greece Group, which tried to enter the Romanian market under the name of Agrotiki Insurance last fall.

“It’s been a year now, since Law 32 on insurance companies and insurance supervision issued in April 2000 has almost blocked the activity on the market.

The only way an insurance company either Romanian or foreign can emerge is buy a company already authorised under the old legislation,” Nicolae Crisan, head of the Insurance-Reinsurance Department within the Finance Ministry, said.

The members of the Insurance Supervision Commission are nominated by parliamentary groups, heard by the joint Budget-Finance Committees and then validated by Parliament.