The rates of compulsory insurance policies remain capped until June 30, after the Government approved, on Thursday, a normative act in this regard.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the Executive approved the normative act promoted by the ministry and developed by the Financial Supervision Authority, which extends by three months the period of application of the maximum RCA insurance premium rates practiced by insurers on February 28, 2023.
The measure is necessary to combat the excessive increase in prices and the gradual stabilization of the RCA insurance market, in order to avoid negative effects in other sectors of the economy, the quoted source said.
“We decided to come up with this temporary but vital solution for drivers, in the context where there are still unresolved problems in the car insurance market that result in a market characterized by an imbalance between demand and supply”, explained the Minister of Finance, Marcel Bolos.
The maximum premium rates have been set at the level of their own premium rates that were practiced by each RCA insurer on February 28, 2023, with the possibility of these being adjusted by a maximum percentage of 6.8%. The rates are applied in the case of RCA contracts concluded after the date of entry into force of the decision.
Distribution commissions related to RCA contracts are limited to a maximum of 8% of the first net of distribution expenses, for a period of 3 months from the date of entry into force of the decision.
The calculation of the compensation takes into account a rate that cannot exceed the average rate charged by rent-a-car agencies offering car rental services without a driver and is granted only in the event that the damaged vehicle can no longer be used from the point of view of technical.
The maximum period for which the mentioned compensations can be granted is 30 days, either from the date of issuance of the repair authorization by the Romanian Police units, or from the date of issuance of the entry into repair document issued by the RCA insurer. The term may be extended only with the approval of the RCA insurer in justified situations, proven with documents.
In the case of vehicles that fall into the situation of total economic damage, the compensations cover the period between the date of damage detection and the date of submission of the compensation offer, in compliance with the terms provided by Law no. 132/2017, with subsequent amendments and additions. In this case, the amount of compensation representing the cost of temporary replacement of the damaged vehicle cannot exceed 25% of the market value of the damaged vehicle.
The Ministry of Finance mentioned that, currently, on the RCA insurance market in Romania, there is still a reluctance regarding the risk appetite of the RCA insurers for certain categories of insured, so that on December 31, 2023, out of the total number of vehicles in the fleet national car insurance, respectively 10,333,293, a number of 7,053,399 vehicles were insured.
“It is important to mention that between January and March 2024, more than 21,000 requests for the allocation of high-risk policyholders were registered, which means that each RCA insurer took on a number of approximately 2,600 such policyholders. Such a situation has the potential to generate negative consequences, in the sense of additional pressure on prices after March 31, 2024, the date on which the effects of Government Decision no. 1326/2023”, said the quoted source.
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