
From January 1, 2023, the new Law on Insurance and Reinsurance Activities will come into force.
The National Commission for Financial Market (NCFM) reminds that from January 1, 2023, a new Law on insurance or reinsurance activities will come into force. The Commission urges professional market participants to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the relevant document in advance in order to bring their activities in line with the new rules. The new law regulates the rules for registration, authorization, licensing, conducting insurance or reinsurance activities, insurance and/or reinsurance mediation activities. The document sets out prudential requirements for insurance market participants and establishes rules for supervision of insurance or reinsurance companies. It provides for a gradual increase in the requirements for the minimum capital of insurance companies, which will need to be implemented in stages, over a period of 5 years. It also introduces requirements to increase the amount of assets allowed to cover technical reserves, and establishes a four-year transitional period for the phased implementation of this provision of the law. The fee for issuing a license for insurance or reinsurance activities will increase from 20,000 to 50,000 lei from 2023, and the fee for issuing a license for intermediary activities in insurance and/or reinsurance as an insurance and/or reinsurance broker will amount to 7,000 .lei (instead of the current 3250 lei). The size of the authorized capital for insurance brokers and insurance agents will remain the same - 400 thousand lei and, respectively, 100 thousand lei. The new law expands the competence of the NCFM as a supervisory authority. Thus, measures and sanctions are regulated that the regulator will be able to apply if market participants do not comply with the requirements for ensuring technical reserves, capital, and solvency. As a reminder, the new Law on Insurance or Reinsurance Activity was adopted by the Parliament on April 7, 2022. It was developed by the NCFM with the technical assistance of the World Bank experts within the framework of the project "Insurance Market Reform of Moldova" and aimed at a partial transposition of the European Directive 2009/138/EC regarding access to the activities and implementation of insurance and reinsurance activities. The current Insurance Law, approved in 2006, will become invalid from the new year. The norms enshrined in it will continue to be applied to the extent that they do not contradict the new Law on insurance and reinsurance activities. Herewith, the NCFM started developing a secondary regulatory framework. // 21.12.2022 — InfoMarket