The FSC is conducting a study on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by entities under the Commission’s supervision. According to the Chairman of the FSC, Mr. Boyko Atanasov, the survey is very suitable in order to clarify the priorities and identify actions that may be necessary for the safe adoption of artificial intelligence in financial services. The study is part of the strategy for achieving the objectives of the Financial Supervision Commission for the period 2019 – 2021.

This is another in a series of studies conducted by the Financial Supervision Commission for the second year, related to trends in the use of financial innovations by supervised entities.

“Innovation in the field of artificial intelligence is the future. The financial sector is the one that has a serious need for tools for audit, control and options for early detection of risks affecting consumers,” said during the information campaign Mr. Boyko Atanasov, Chairman of the FSC.

The online survey was sent to representatives of the three branches of the non-banking financial sector – insurance, investment and pension insurance market. The study also focuses on the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the pace of automation and the adoption of AI in financial services. Therefore, proper control and sustainability of AI systems in the short term are crucial. There may be a need for further work on the audit of artificial intelligence algorithms in the future, which was already a key area of interest before Covid-19. In the long run, companies will need to think about AI and data management in a more holistic way, and in the context of their broader technology infrastructures, and adjust risk management processes accordingly. After the questionnaire is filled in, the FSC will compile a discussion document that will provide information on statistical results in quantitative and qualitative terms, as well as presenting the attitudes of supervised entities towards their answers.

The survey will be conducted online until 29 April 2021.

On 27 May 2021 for the 13th consecutive year the award ceremony “Insurer of the Year”, “Pension Insurance Company of the Year” and “Insurance Broker of the Year” for 2020 was held. The organizers of the ceremony are the Higher School of Insurance and Finance (VUZF), Association of Bulgarian Insurers (ABI), Bulgarian Association of Supplementary Pension Insurance Companies (BASPSC), Prof. Rd. Veleslav Gavriyski Foundation and the Bulgarian Association of Insurance Brokers (BAIB).

Special guests at the ceremony were Mr. Boyko Atanasov, Chairman of the Financial Supervision Commission, Mr. Vladimir Savov, Deputy Chairperson of the Financial Supervision Commission, Head of the Insurance Supervision Department, Ms. Diana Yordanova, Deputy Chairperson of the Financial Supervision Commission, Head of the Pension Insurance Supervision Department and Mr. Lazar Lazarov, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

In his address to the organizers and participants, Mr. Boyko Atanasov shared:

“When the crisis unfolded, the insurance and pension sector had the choice, on the one hand, to continue to act on momentum and on well-trodden but sustainable models, trying to prevent possible losses. On the other hand, however, we are faced with the choice to create new ways of operating in the market and in relation to customers. Today we clearly see that the participants in the insurance and pension insurance market are successfully adapting to the challenges of the environment by implementing more and more digital services and mobile fintech applications, by building an organizational work culture in which to maintain good and working practices and to introduce new ones, adequate for the market and the conditions. I believe that the driver of change in the sector is focus, thought, emphasis on specific products designed specifically for target groups, because it is the attitude of thinking about people’s needs that is crucial for the stability of the sector. Today, more than ever, we are moving from a crisis response phase to a recovery phase and an innovation phase to provide what consumers need most – security and peace of mind!”

The Chairman of the FSC – Mr. Boyko Atanasov, presented the Grand Prize “Insurer of the Year” in the category “Non-Life Insurance” to DZI Non-Life Insurance EAD. Boyko Atanasov, Chairman of the FSC

Ms. Diana Yordanova, Deputy Chairperson of the FSC, Head of the Pension Insurance Supervision Department, presented the Pension Insurance Company of the Year 2020 award in the category “Supplementary Mandatory Pension Insurance”. The winner was Pension insurance company Doverie AD.

The Insurance Intermediary of the Year award in the Non-Life Insurance category was presented to Amarant Bulgaria OOD by Mr. Vladimir Savov, Deputy Chairperson of the FSC, Head of the Insurance Supervision Department.

Three awards were presented by the Prof. Dr. Veleslav Gavriyski Foundation for Overall Contribution to the development of Bulgarian insurance ”,“ Overall Contribution to the development of Bulgarian Social Insurance” and Overall contribution to the development of insurance intermediation”.

The Chairman of the FSC, Mr. Boyko Atanasov presented the special award for “Overall contribution to the development of Bulgarian insurance” for 2021 to Nedyalko Chandarov, Chairperson of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bulstrad VIG.

For 2020 the winners of the prize in the category are Prof. Dr. Stoyan Prodanov, Executive Director of Bull Ins Insurance Company AD and Head of the Finance Department at the Academy of Economics – Svishtov and Petar Avramov – Deputy Chairperson of the Board of The directors of Euroins Insurance Company and Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of IC EIG Re AD. The special award for “Overall contribution to the development of Bulgarian insurance” for 2021 was awarded to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Biser Petkov, former Deputy Chairperson of the FSC, former NSSI Governor and former Minister of Social Affairs, and for 2020 the prize went to Miroslav Marinov, Executive Director of PIC Doverie AD. The award for “Overall contribution to the development of insurance intermediation” for 2021 was given to Monika Minkova, managing partner of IB Renomia, and for 2020 the winner was Mihail Antonov, manager of Insurance Broker AVVI OOD.

The awards presented at the ceremony were divided into 9 categories, and the winners were determined by an expert jury according to pre-determined criteria.

The best companies for 2020 received prizes in the following categories:

• Insurer of the Year – Non-Life Insurance – DZI – Non-life Insurance EAD
• Insurer of the Year – Life Insurance – IC UNICA LIFE AD
• Insurer of the Year – The most dynamically developing company – IC EIG RE EAD
• Pension Insurance Company of the Year – Supplementary Mandatory Pension Insurance – PIC Doverie AD
• Pension Insurance Company of the Year – Supplementary Voluntary Pension Insurance – Allianz Bulgaria AD
• Pension Insurance Company of the Year – The most dynamically developing company – PIC – Future AD
• Insurance broker of the year – Non-Life Insurance – Amarant Bulgaria OOD
• Insurance Broker of the Year – Life Insurance – IGN INSURANCE BROKERS OOD
• Insurance Broker of the Year – The most dynamically developing company – ‘GENERAL BROKER OOD.

For the second year in a row, the ceremony was held online and was broadcast live on Facebook, with only the distinguished companies, organizers and guests presenting the awards in attendance in the hall of VUZF.

On 05.10.2021 the Financial Supervision Commission was notified by the Financial Supervision Authority of the Republic of Romania (FINANCIAL SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY ROMANIA) of the revocation of the license of the Romanian insurer SOCIETATEA DE ASIGURARE – REASIGURARE CITY INSURANCE S.A. due to insolvency of the insurer. Action has been taken by the Romanian national competent authority before the competent Romanian court to open insolvency proceedings against the insurance company.

SOCIETATEA DE ASIGURARE – REASIGURARE CITY INSURANCE S.A. has the right to operate on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria under the terms of freedom to provide services, but according to the Romanian Financial Supervision Authority the insurer has not issued insurance to cover risks located in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The notice of license revocation is published on the website of the Financial Supervision Authority of the Republic of Romania at: https://asfromania.ro/en/a/2191/press-release.

The Financial Supervision Commission will promptly publish on its website: www.fsc.bg any information in connection with the open insolvency proceedings of SOCIETATEA DE ASIGURARE – REASIGURARE CITY INSURANCE S.A.

Up-to-date information can also be obtained through the Commission Information Centre: 0800 40 444 (toll-free number).

The FSC draws the attention of investors to the fact that Arch Capital OOD is not entered in the public register of the FSC as a national investment fund, nor as an alternative investment fund manager and the alternative investment funds managed by them. ARCH Capital OOD is not entitled to offer potential clients investments in real estate, virtual assets, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, start-ups and other types of alternative investments.

According to data available in the FSC, Arch Capital LTD operates at its address -. Sofia, 23 Tvardishki Prohod Str., Apt. office 24 and at Sofia, 109 Bulgaria Blvd., Vertigo Business Tower.

The FSC draws the attention of investors to be especially vigilant when transferring funds in connection with the offered financial service.

Before transferring money, each investor must check whether the person proposing a transaction has a license from the FSC or the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). Information on the activities subject to licensing is available on the websites of both regulators; it can also be obtained by written inquiry or telephone call.

In the event that the provision of the relevant service requires a license or permit, each investor must ensure that the company with which he is negotiating actually has one. Such information is contained on the websites of the FSC and the BNB.

As an additional guarantee for the security of investments, the FSC recommends each investor to request information from the bank who is the holder of the respective bank account provided for transfer. Very often, persons who engage in illegal financial activities or investment fraud provide their potential investors with a bank account for transfer to a person whose name is similar to that of a licensed entity.

Therefore, after receiving information from the bank about the exact name of the account holder, the potential investor should check whether it completely matches the name of the licensed entity.

The Financial Supervision Commission created the campaign #invest safely (https://investsafely.fsc.bg/) to enable consumers to identify legitimate investment schemes, but also to learn the signs by which to identify irregularities.

The Financial Supervision Commission reviewed and adopted at first vote amendments to Ordinance No. 61 of 27.09.2018 on the requirements for advertising and written information materials and Internet pages of pension insurance companies. The aim is to comply with the changes made by the Act to Amend and Supplement the Social Insurance Code (promulgated SG No. 19/2021), by unifying the information provided by pension insurance companies upon request by the persons insured in the supplementary pension insurance funds

The proposed amendments:

– approve templates of the statements from the analytical accounts of the persons receiving deferred payments from the deferred payment funds and of the information on the achieved real profitability on the analytical accounts;

– regulate the method used by pension insurance companies to calculate the real return on the analytical account of a person receiving payments from a deferred payment fund, i.e. the use of the money-weighted method is envisaged, which is also used to calculate the real return on the individual account in a supplementary pension insurance fund;

– the requirements to the form and content of the information on the volume and structure of investments by types of assets and issuers of financial instruments of the payment funds, the achieved profitability and the level of investment risk in the management of payment funds and their public disclosure by pension insurance companies.

The draft ordinance updates Ordinance No. 47 of 11.07.2012 on the requirements for the information systems of pension insurance companies, and it is also developed in relation to the payment activities of the funds.

The draft and the reasons for it are published on the website of the Financial Supervision Commission in the section Regulations, subsection Public Consultations, and the deadline for submitting comments and proposals on the draft is 14 days from its publication until 22.06.2021 inclusive.

Regarding a received signal and in order to inform investors in financial instruments and all other participants in the capital markets, the Financial Supervision Commission informs the public that investment firm VARCHEV FINANCE EOOD, the related legal entities and the website used by the investment firm https://www.varchev.com/, on the one hand, and the persons providing loans under the name “Vranchev Finance” and using the website https://vranchev-finans.com, on the other hand, have no connection whatsoever.

 Vranchev Finance does not have a license from the FSC to provide investment services and perform investment activities within the meaning of Art. 6, para. 2 and 3 of the Markets in Financial Instruments Act, nor did the FSC receive notifications for Vranchev Finance or the website https://vranchev-finans.com from another national competent authority of a Member State for the provision of services in the Republic of Bulgaria under the freedom to provide services within the European Union or by establishing a branch. Therefore, according to Art. 7, para. 1 of the MFIA, Vranchev Finance has no right to provide investment services and / or perform investment activities within the meaning of Art. 6, para. 2 and 3 of the MFIA on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria and the European Union, including to accept funds in its bank accounts on the occasion and / or for the purpose of any investment activity.

 Licensed companies can be verified on the FSC webpage – http://www.fsc.bg/ and / or on the webpages of the competent authorities of the European Union, as well as on the website of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) – https://www.esma.europa.eu/.

The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) presented publicly the project:

“Establishment of a Single Information System (UIS) for the Financial Supervision Commission”.

The project is implemented under administrative contract No. BG05SFOP001-1.011-0001-C01 / 23.07.2020 for the provision of grants under the Operational Program “Good Governance” (OPGG), co-financed by the European Union through the European Social Fund under the procedure BG05SFOP001-1.011 by directly providing a grant concluded between the OPGG Managing Authority and the Financial Supervision Commission.

The UIS was presented by Ms. Denitsa Kirova – Secretary General of the FSC and contracting authority of the project, who shared with the participants that “It is a priority for the Commission to reduce administrative burden by fully digitalizing the administrative services it offers. One of our key goals is to provide timely, good and transparent supervision activities. We live in two working worlds – real and virtual. We are aware of the need to be fully present where business and consumers are. I believe that building a unified information system will allow us to meet this need, and we will have the opportunity not only to improve the process of administrative services to citizens and businesses, but also to integrate the activities and processes of the FSC with the systems of European supervisors.

The main goals of the project “Establishment of a Single Information System (UIS) for the Financial Supervision Commission are:

Improving the process of administrative services to citizens and businesses by upgrading all administrative services that the FSC offers and are part of the state administration system (IISSA or Administrative Register).

Redesign, upgrade and improvement of at least 18 public registers of the FSC, through which information is provided to citizens and businesses.

Integration with the relevant horizontal components of e-government in the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as with the Single Portal for access to e-services.

Real-time integration of information exchange with EU regulators – the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) .

Improving the mechanism for risk-based supervision applied by the FSC.

Refining and development of automation of the process of determining fees due by businesses and citizens.

Organizing and conducting trainings with the widest range of users, both by system administrators and end users.

The project will contribute to achieving the main objectives arising from the Updated e-Government Strategy in the Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2019 – 2023. It will finance activities necessary for the implementation of one of the priority measures in the Updated Roadmap for the implementation of the Updated Strategy for the development of e-government in the Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2019-2023, namely: design, development, implementation and maintenance of the Unified Information System of the Financial Supervision Commission.

The total value of the project is BGN 4,999,980.50. (four million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and eighty BGN and fifty stotinki), of which BGN 4,249,983.42 are European and BGN 749,997.08 are national co-financing.

The deadline for the establishment of the Unified Information System for the needs of the Financial Supervision Commission is set for the autumn of 2023.

The event itself took place online through the MS Teams platform, which was introduced as part of the Commission’s telecommuting measures at the beginning of last year’s epidemic.

As part of the Financial Innovation Monitoring Strategy of the Financial Supervision Commission for the period 2021-2024, the FSC continues its commitment to develop and improve its supervisory activities together with other European regulators and actively seek harmonization of national regulatory frameworks and practices in the field of financial innovation, including the implementation of artificial intelligence models.

In this respect, guided by its principle of active communication and dialogue with supervised entities, the FSC undertook a study to identify key topics related to the benefits, challenges and development of AI. The aim is to analyse in more detail the innovation in question and outline the current and future direction of development through analysis, opinions and criticism.

A total of 106 supervised entities answered the questions. The most active are the insurance brokers – 81%, followed by the insurance companies – 16%.

The topics in the initiated discussion document were related to the trends in the development of AI, the benefits and disadvantages of implementation, as well as the challenges facing companies, namely: the investments they have to make and the level of service they have to offer. Last but not least, the opinion of the supervised entities was sought regarding their attitudes towards greater use of AI by the regulator, and the responses reflected a positive attitude towards the policy to support the implementation of AI by the supervisory authority.

The ambitious goals set by the FSC in the field of financial innovation require work in unison with the imposed European principles and according to the level of risk posed by the respective AI systems, requirements will be determined to meet the quantitative and qualitative data, human force involved in the process and approach of data validation, testing and documentation. The key to the introduction of an AI system will be clearly defined managerial responsibilities for the business process, the level of risk in outsourcing the service, ensuring impartiality of results, algorithms used in decision-making processes, eliminating opportunities for action related to legal violations.

The Chairman of the Financial Supervision Commission, Mr. Boyko Atanasov, expressed his gratitude for the commitment and high level of activity on the part of the participants in the study. He believes that the obtained results are extremely important for determining the current situation in the field of AI use and for outlining the framework in which to work effectively in integrating artificial intelligence and overcoming the challenges facing the non-banking financial sector in this regard.

The updated Financial Innovation Monitoring Strategy for the Period 2021-2024, published on the Financial Supervision Commission’s website, aims to establish a dialogue between the regulator and business, with a view to outlining possible future joint initiatives to integrate AI systems into the non-banking financial sector.

To clarify the reporting of information by investment firms in accordance with the applicable requirements of Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on the prudential requirements of investment firms and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 575/2013, (EU) No 600/2014 and (EU) No 806/2014 (Regulation (EU) 2019/2033), the Financial Supervision Commission shall inform investment firms of the stage of implementation of the new prudential supervision at European level and the expected reporting format. Investment firms are provided with template reporting forms developed by the European Banking Authority, as well as information on draft regulatory technical standards, available on the websites of the European Banking Authority and the European Commission.

Draft regulatory technical standards based on Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 are available on the European Banking Authority’s website here.

Draft regulatory technical standards based on Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 are available on the European Commission’s website as follows:

Draft Delegated Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the methods for measuring the K-factors;

Draft Delegated Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the notion of segregated accounts to ensure client money’s protection in the event of an investment firm’s failure;

Draft Delegated Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the methods for adjusting the K-factor “daily trading flow” (K-DTF);

Draft Delegated Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the methods for adjusting the K-factor “clearing margin given” (K-CMG);

Draft Delegated Regulation specifying the criteria for subjecting certain investment firms to the requirements of Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms and amending Regulation (EU) No. 648/2012;

The applicable reporting forms developed by the European Banking Authority, as well as instructions for filling in, can be downloaded here.

You can send your questions on the implementation of the new prudential supervision to delovodstvo@fsc.bg.