Public information

The Memorandum of Understanding with the Union of Mathematicians of Macedonia completed the successful cooperation thus far, in which ISA provided support through training to young high school students, excellent mathematicians who won a bronze medal at the International Economics Olympiad held in neighboring Greece.

The Insurance Supervision Agency (ISA) will continue to provide young mathematicians with financial education training. Simultaneously, ISA will actively support high school mathematicians in national and international competitions and Olympiads within its competencies and capabilities.

ISA and the Union of Mathematicians of Macedonia (UMM) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of that procedure, which was signed by Krste Shajnoski, president of ISA’s Expert Council, and Gjorgi Markoski, president of UMM. The Union of Mathematicians is a professional organization that organizes our representatives’ preparations for each Economics Olympiad for high school mathematicians.

ISA, in collaboration with UMM, will provide trainings to improve high school students’ financial literacy. The MoU includes a slew of coordinated actions aimed at assisting young mathematicians with a special emphasis on financial education and greater utilization of financial products and services.

The cooperation that began in the first half of the year between ISA and UMM is strengthened and deepened by this Memorandum. Then, ISA professionals offered a training session for our high school mathematicians and economists who achieved excellent success at the Balkan Olympiad in Greece.

Specifically, for the first time, our representatives were awarded a bronze medal at the International Economics Olympiad in June of this year, which covers a team performance in the development of a business study in addition to individual achievements.

ISA shall increase its collaboration with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UKIM, which is the parent organization of mathematicians from UMM, through this project.

Following a break of six years, a new insurance company is being established on the Macedonian life insurance market in which Slovenian owners will invest EUR 4 million. This investment proves that the current ISA management in cooperation with other financial institutions is actively improving the business climate and is therefore creating conditions for investments in the insurance business.

The Insurance Supervision Agency (ISA) issued a work permit to the new insurance company “Prva Život”. This company shall offer life insurance on our insurance market. The founder and sole owner of the newly established life insurance company is the Slovenian insurance holding PRVA GROUP (SKUPINA PRVA, zavararovalniski holding, d.d).

The Slovenian group is a renowned holding that has been managing pension funds in Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo for two decades. The Group has an insurance company in Slovenia, and their entry into our insurance market is expected to improve competitiveness in the sector and contribute to enriching the offer of life insurance products.

The Slovenian company invested EUR 4 million in the newly established insurance company, which is the amount of the founding capital of “Prva Život”. The funds have been deposited in a special foreign currency account of the central bank.

At the regular session, the Council of Experts of ISA adopted the decision to issue a work permit that allows “Prva Život” to perform insurance operations within the group of life insurance in class 19 – life insurance.

“Prva život” will start working within six months from the day of issuing the work permit, and the company’s headquarters will be in Skopje. Predrag Milosevski has been appointed as an executive member of the Board of Directors.

ISA obliged the company to appoint an authorized actuary within two months of the company’s registration in the Trade Register.

“Prva život” will be the sixth company on the Macedonian life insurance market, where “Croatia insurance – život”, “Triglav život”, “Grawe”, “Winner Life VIG” and “Uniqa Life” are currently operating.

During the first six months, citizens have invested over EUR 14 million in life insurance in the five life insurance companies.

Our insurance market invests in three groups of life insurance products. Investments in insurance with a savings component have the largest share in total life insurance. This product enables the insured entity to receive the invested funds increased with interest after the expiration of the insurance contract. Payments of policyholders who have this type of insurance are invested in bank deposits in government bonds or other risk-free financial instruments.

The official data of the life insurance companies shows that the biggest growth in sales is life insurance that does not have a savings component. In this case, in the event of death for the duration of the contract, the insured amount is paid to a family member or another beneficiary of the insurance. However, if the risk does not occur until the expiration of the insurance contract, all the invested funds are kept by the insurance company that assumed the risk to pay out funds in case of death of the insured person.

Life insurance in which the risk of investing the funds is assumed by the insured entity, is the newest insurance product from the range of life insurance products on our market. This product is popularly known as “Unit linked” insurance. Here, a significant part of the money is invested in investment funds, chosen by the insured entities, whose market prices depend on the movements of regional and global capital markets.

The transparent operation of the ISA management has contributed to the growth of the number of complaints received from insureds regarding the operation of the insurance companies. In three months, the ISA acted upon 52 complaints, which is three times more than last year. The most numerous, in the first three months of this year, are the complaints of insureds for car liability compensation of damage covered by a European report. The number of these complaints increased almost fourfold.

The Insurance Supervision Agency (ISA) in the first three months of this year reviewed 52 complaints from insureds who complained about the services of insurance companies.

The number of complaints that the ISA acted upon in the first quarter of this year has tripled compared to the same period last year when the ISA experts acted upon 17 complaints.

In the period January-March, the ISA received a total of 62 complaints from insureds, whereby 6 of them were without grounds for consideration, and in 4 cases the submitters withdrew their complaints. Out of a total of 52 cases in which the ISA acted in favor of the insureds, 8 complaints were resolved, which is a fourfold increase compared to the same period last year. Currently 18 complaints are being processed, and 26 complaints of insureds were negatively resolved.

Usually, the insureds complained about the European report service when resolving traffic damages. Out of a total of 27 complaints for resolving car liability damage claims (the largest and compulsory insurance class), as many as 19 complaints are due to the actions of insurance companies in accordance with the European report for damages. Compared to the same period last year, the number of insureds who complained about that service increased fourfold.

There has been a significant increase in the number of complaints for property insurance – the largest voluntary insurance class. The ISA experts received 13 complaints from insureds, which is twice as much as in the same period in 2021.

Regarding the reason for which the insureds complain, most of the complaints in this period refer to the basis for payment of damages by the companies. For the first three months, 20 such complaints were received, which is 53% more than the same quarter in 2021.

The most significant increase in the number of complaints is related to the procedure in which companies process the damages of the insureds. From the beginning of January to the end of March, 16 complaints for damage processing were submitted, and last year in the same period there were 4 times fewer submitted complaints on this basis.

In the first three months of this year, 15 insureds complained about the amount of compensation offered by insurance companies. In these cases, the ISA does not have the authority to decide on the amount of compensation, however it determines the conditions and circumstances in which the decision on the amount of offered compensation of damage was made.

Of the submitted complaints, 47 were submitted by citizens, and 15 were submitted by legal entities. Of the citizens who submitted complaints, 13 used the services of a lawyer – representative.

A complaint is submitted to the ISA if the insured is not satisfied with the response to the claim by the insurance company or has not received a response within 30 days. The ISA does not review anonymous complaints or cases for which court or other proceedings are being conducted.

The Insurance Supervision Agency (ISA) is an independent regulatory body that regulates the insurance market, supervises the operation of the insurance entities, ensures protection of the rights of the insureds and contributes to financial education and inclusion of the population.