The Institute of Financial Studies Foundation and the DCMedia Group press trust organized the CONFERENCE "Quo Vadis insurance market in 2020!" - The second edition, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, on Thursday, February 6, 2020, an event generated in the context of changes in systems, practices and processes in the insurance industry - starting from digitalization and innovation.
Debate with all players in the insurance market
In front of dozens of participants, representatives of all players in the insurance market - car, health, life, housing, brand names discussed market trends in 2020, the evolution of market offerings, the legislative context, digitalization in insurance, protection consumers and the new European paradigm of conduct in this field. The guests were: Adela COJAN - President of the National Health Insurance House, Cristian ROȘU - Vice President of ASF, Călin RANGU - President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Financial Studies Foundation, Oana FLOREA-deputy, Adrian MARIN - President of the National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies from Romania UNSAR, Antonio SOUVANNASOUCK - President of the Romanian Board of Insurance Brokers of Romania (PRBAR), Dorel DUȚĂ - President of the National Union of Insurance Intermediation and Consulting Companies of Romania (UNSICAR), Nicoleta RADU - General Director of PAID Romania, Eugen STOICA - Inspector General, Ministry of Education and Research and Nadia ZAHARIA - Chief Commissioner of Police, Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In this context, numerous discussions were opened on the needs of the insurance market, its pitfalls, useful information, both for the beneficiary and for insurers and market institutions.
The problem of exclusions in insurance contracts
"There is a recommendation at the European level towards travel insurance. What I mention now is not exclusively dedicated to the Romanian market. At the top, in this analysis at the European level, the Romanian market is better than the European market. There is that subject of exclusions from contracts. insurance, which can be to the detriment of the consumer, how can this be found? If you look at the combined rate at European level, one of the travel insurance companies in Europe had a combined rate of 4 percent, which is practically very simplistic. that he compensated only 4 percent and collects the money in 96 percent of cases.Practically the product is empty is contained, possibly due to the exclusions included in the contract.The man buys, does not know what he buys, when he goes to claim compensation he sees that he had a series We have a project funded by the European Union, implemented by EIOPA, to ensure a framework for the supervision of advanced consumer protection, which will be applied from May 2020 on the basis of indicators of conduct, proactive measures in addition to the information obtained from petitions, "was the signal sent by Călin Rangu, president of the Board of the Institute of Financial Studies.
Exclusions from CASCO insurance
"Mr Rangu was talking about exclusions. Shall I give you examples from CASCO contracts? See how a customer can take out CASCO insurance and find out during the off-season that he can't collect the damage? Because, you see, he has tires all season, which are allowed by law, but in the CASCO contracts it is written that compensation is given if you have a car equipped with winter tires, according to the law.What do we mean by 'according to the law'? That all seasons are also valid or only the winter ones "CASCO insurance is a direct agreement between the insurer and the customer. So the insurer can be completely direct and say that it only compensates if the customer has winter tires. But let this text be clear! Do not leave room for interpretation, let everyone interpret how he wants, as a result of which the endless endless discussions begin, how to put the comma, who is right ", declared Cristian Roşu, the vice-president of ASF.
Risk in health insurance
"The discussion is only whether health insurance can support and develop the public and private systems, through the investments that insurance companies can make indirectly. We must be very careful about how this will develop and evolve. health insurance market, because depending on how we build it from the beginning, we will have a solid and fair market, otherwise we will develop it chaotically and make a new RCA market, this time in the area of health insurance ", warned Cristian Roșu, ASF vice president. "This will not happen late, but in a few years," he added.
The president of the National Health Insurance House, Adela Cojan, underlined: “I consider that health is a good of wide social utility. This is a sensitive subject that everyone has to comment on and that everyone is good at. Now, as far as I know, I think we are the last country in Europe that has not introduced its health insurance system. We are also the EU country with the lowest percentage of contribution to social health insurance, respectively 10.7 percent, the European average being 14 percent. We also have a low level, about 5% of GDP to finance the health system. It would be an extra financing to introduce these private health insurances ”.
Seven million homes, uninsured in the face of potentially catastrophic events
Nicoleta Radu, General Manager of PAID Romania, also addressed the issue of home insurance: “Currently, although it is a mandatory law, in Romania there are over 7 million homes still uninsured against natural disasters. As we all know, Romania is a country exposed to these events, so having less than one in 5 insured homes is a strategic issue. Moreover, there are areas where not even one in 10 homes is insured. In a country where a catastrophic event can happen at any time, I think we should be more aware. "
Insurers - penalties and exclusion from the market
"Insurers are monitored and penalized daily by customers, and they themselves, or some of them, have this NPS, net promoter score. Sooner or later, they will be removed from the market if they neglect their customers. Insurers come to any state and must to respect the rules in force, but also the consequences of the acts they fulfill ", underlined Adrian Marin, the president of the National Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies in Romania.
In conclusion, we end with an alarm signal sounded by the vice president of ASF to all market players:
"I have said on another occasion, I say now. We will not be, as an authority and insurers, a voice neither credible nor to be taken into account before any authority of the Romanian state, regardless of the political color, so that we can transmit the desire to invest in a real economy, at the amounts we have. Simply put, no one will pay attention to us. The growth of this area, of the life insurance and health insurance market, first of all, which means accumulations important funds, can lead to the transformation of insurers into important investors in the real economy. We want to invest, but we don't have to, but we can't ask for as long as we can't offer something concrete. we are a listening voice, we have to have what! ", said Cristian Roşu.
The full debate can be watched on DCNews.ro in the news "Conference" Quo Vadis insurance market in 2020! " - Second Edition - February 6, 2020 ”.
