Car insurance policy payment made compulsory in banks

TIRANA, Nov. 7 – Starting from Nov. 1 payments of compulsory car insurance policies will be made only through banks, the Financial Supervisory Authority has decided. “This project through its compulsory inclusion of the transaction on insurance policies enables the development and control of motor insurance market and establishes standards in the financial actions starting with the issue of compulsory insurance policies to paid claims,” says the Authority. The implementation of the project will be accompanied with some security codes which guarantee consumers of the correct insurance policy and the transmission of their data to the Supervisory Authority.
“In this way, the Financial Supervisory Authority increases the quality of the monitoring insurance companies on their accurate reporting of the sold policies fulfilling its important targets of consumer protection and the strengthening of the insurance market,” says the Authority.
The move comes few weeks after eight insurance companies operating in Albania were fined a total of 89 million lek (Euro 625,000) after the Competition Authority uncovered a price-fixing deal in compulsory motor insurance policy. The deal was made in February 2012 when all companies fixed motor insurance prices in a banned deal severely damaging competition.
The insurance market almost ended its downward trend last September when the market’s gap narrowed to only 0.18 percent for the first three quarters of 2012.