Up-to-date information for policyholders at Certasig Insurance Company

 For the purpose of informing and transparency to the Bulgarian public on the case of Certasig-Insurance and Reinsurance Company AD, registered in Romania, and in addition to the news published on 30.12.2020 the Financial Supervision Commission informs the persons who have claims from the company that there is information related to the protection of the rights and interests of users of insurance services on the website of the Romanian Guarantee Fund for Policyholders (GFP).

 Short guidelines for policyholders and beneficiaries from abroad in relation to the Certasig case are available in English at https://www.fgaromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Ghid_Certasig_en_.pdf. The document contains synthesized information on the protection provided by the insurance claims guarantee scheme in the Republic of Romania, on the authorized persons and on the procedure under which claims can be made.

 Forms for claims to the Romanian Guarantee Fund for Policyholders in English are available the website https://www.fgaromania.ro/en/claimant-forms/. In view of the instructions given in the guidelines for policyholders and beneficiaries that claims against the Romanian Guarantee Fund should be made in Romanian, they are also available in Romanian on the following website: https://www.fgaromania.ro/formulare/.

 According to the published information, persons who have claims for insurance compensation in connection with insurance events or for insurance premiums corresponding to the unexpired term of insurance contracts that have been terminated prematurely can now file their claims to the Romanian Guarantee Fund for Policyholders in Romania. Claims can be filed directly in the headquarters of the Romanian Guarantee Fund, by post (registered letter with confirmation of receipt), by e-mail or in other ways that guarantee submission and confirmation of receipt.

 The Financial Supervision Commission will continue to communicate the relevant information concerning the protection of the rights and interests of the users of insurance services in connection with all subsequent measures against the insurer and its branch in the Republic of Bulgaria on its website: www.fsc.bg.

Two new licenses for insurance brokers

The Deputy Chairman of FSC, Head of Insurance Supervision Division,  has  issued a permission to “HRONOS” OOD, managed and represented by Tonya Petkova, to operate as an insurance broker within the territory of Republic of Bulgaria.
A permission to operate as an insurance broker was also issued to “TOTAL Ins” OOD.
The voluntary refusal of “INSURANCE BROKERAGE” EOOD, managed and represented by Ivailo Assenov, to operate as an insurance broker was approved by FSC.

Three new insurance brokers

The Deputy Chairman of FSC, head of Insurance Supervision Commission issued license to operate as an insurance broker to the following companies – “Black Sea Brokers” EOOD, “Glo Brokers” EOOD and “Fox” EOOD. 
 

The three new European Supervisory Authorities of the bank, capital, insurance and the pension insurance market have begun work since the beginning of the year

On 1 January, 2011, the three new European Supervisory Authorities – the European Banking Authority (EBA), European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) и European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) officially began work.  The new Authorities are successors respectively of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, Committee of European Securities Regulators and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Committee. On 10, 11 and 12 January, 2011 the first meetings were held of the three Boards of Supervisors – the main decision-making structure in the EBA, ESMA and EIOPA. As Chairpersons were elected respectively Andrea Enria (EBA), Steven Maijoor (ESMA) and Gabriel Bernardino (EIOPA). The election of the three Chairpersons has to be confirmed also by the European Parliament. The first six-person Management Boards of EBA, ESMA and EIOPA were also appointed. The task of the new Authorities is to contribute to improvement of the functioning of European financial market, coordinating the activities of the national supervisory authorities, propose standards and guidelines and monitor for their application.
Within this context, the national supervisory authorities preserve their powers and will continue to exercise daily supervision over the individual; financial institutions. In case of established inconsistencies in the European regulations, settlement of disputes between the national supervisory authorities, as well as in crisis situation at European Union level, EBA, ESMA and EIOPA will be able to issue legally binding decisions to the national supervisory authorities and individual financial institutions.
Representatives of Bulgaria in the Board Supervisors of the new Authorities are Rumen Simeonov, Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank in charge of Banking Supervision Department (EBA) and Stoyan Mavrodiev, Chairman of the Financial Supervision (ESMA and EIOPA).
At its meeting on 12 January, 2011, the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority adopted a work program for conducting an EU-wide stress test of the system in the first half of 2011, and the results will be published towards the middle of the year. This activity will be carried out jointly with the national supervisory authorities, the European Systemic Risk Board, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

The technical interest rate and biometric mortality tables to be applied by the PIC when calculating the pension reserves as of 31.12.2021 have been approved

Diana Yordanova, Deputy Chairperson of the FSC, Head of the Social Insurance Supervision Department, issued a decision approving the technical interest rate and biometric mortality tables to be applied in the calculation of pension reserves as of 31.12.2021 by the pension insurance companies who manage a supplementary voluntary pension insurance fund.

Decision No. 918 – ПОД of 20.12.2021 can be found in the section “Administrative documents”, and the annexes to it – in the section “Administrative documents”, “Forms and templates”, “Social Insurance activity”, 2021 (available only in BG version).

The team of the Financial Supervision Commission took part in a training conducted by the University of Economics – Varna

On 15 and 16 April 2021, the next module of the FIN-TECH project of the University of Economics – Varna was launched, funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission. The online session was attended by experts from the Financial Supervision Commission, the University of Economics – Varna, the Bulgarian Fintech Association and representatives of fintech companies in Bulgaria.

Within the two days of the training, the Bulgarian fintech ecosystem was discussed, as well as real cases of using blockchain in fintech, cyber risk management through models based on rank scale and explicable artificial intelligence, smart contracts – management, opportunities and risks , the cryptocurrency market and methods for its analysis by applying various cluster techniques based on prototypes, etc.

The event is held within the project FIN-TECH “A FINancial supervision and TECHnology compliance training program”, funded by HORIZON 2020, in which the University of Economics – Varna and the Financial Supervision Commission represent Bulgaria in a consortium of 24 countries. Each of them is presented by an educational institution in the field of higher education and a regulatory body for the non-banking sector.

Since the start of the project, in early 2019, the experts of the FSC and the University of Economics – Varna participated in two more sessions for knowledge exchange in the fields of big data and artificial intelligence. The University of Economics – Varna and the FSC jointly organized and held an International Round Table “Peer to peer lending in Europe and the Balkan Peninsula”.

The Financial Supervision Commission is actively continuing to study the implementation of financial innovations in the non-banking financial sector.

The Steering Committee extends the deadline for the reviews of the insurers/reinsurers and pension funds until the end of January 2017

The Steering Committee extends the deadline for the balance sheet review of the insurers and reinsurers as well as the deadline for the asset review of the pension funds until the end of January 2017.

The results on individual level will be ready as planned by the year end,  however for the   review of the group level results, as these results  include indicators from related insurance companies from another countries, the Steering Committee decided that it was appropriate an extension of the deadline  until 23 January 2017. The insurance sector stress test results shall be announced together with the results from the reviews by 3 February 2017.

The Steering Committee extends the deadline for the reviews of the insurers/reinsurers and pension funds until the end of January 2017

The Steering Committee extends the deadline for the balance sheet review of the insurers and reinsurers as well as the deadline for the asset review of the pension funds until the end of January 2017. The results on individual level will be ready as planned by the year end,  however for the   review of the group level results, as these results  include indicators from related insurance companies from another countries, the Steering Committee decided that that it was appropriate an extension of the deadline  until 23 January 2017. The insurance sector stress test results shall be announced together with the results from the reviews by 3 February 2017.

The second Europe-wide stress-test for the insurance sector was launched

On 23 March, 2011 the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has launched the second Europe-wide stress-test for the insurance sector. The stress test is conducted in cooperation with the respective national supervisory authorities and will be concluded by the end of May, based on 2010 financial results. EIOPA will publish the aggregated results of the test in July 2011. The test is targeted towards the European insurance sector and will include a minimum of 50% of insurance companies per country measured by gross premium income. The Swiss Financial Market Authority (Finma) has decided to join the stress test in addition to member states of the European Union and European Economic Area (EEA).

To carry out this stress-test, EIOPA considered the macroeconomic assumptions that were applied to the banking stress test, in particular the assumptions underlying the macroeconomic adverse scenario provided by the European Central Bank. EIOPA further enhanced the definitions of those stress scenarios to address the actual market environment of the insurance industry.

Stress tests are a regular supervisory tool and the execution of periodic exercises is set down in EIOPA’s regulation, which defines EIOPA’s composition, powers, tasks and decision making process.

The scope of activity of two investment intermediaries has been limited

The Commission approved the request of two investment intermediaries – “East Finance” and “ABV – Investments”   to limit  the scope of their activity. According to the decision the investment intermediaries can not execute transactions with securities for their own account, as well can not underwrite issues of securities and manage individual portfolios of securities and/or money.