Romanian car owners will deal with their own insurance firms for mandatory car insurance (RCA) claims, regardless of who is at fault for the accident. The claims will be processed without waiting for a third party decision, according to an initiative of the financial markets regulator ASF that will be transposed into an emergency ordinance by the Government, announced ASF president Nicu Marcu.

The customer will be happy, more or less, since he can receive the compensation on the spot, and the insurance firms will settle among themselves, Marcu explained, according to local Agerpres.

The so-called direct compensation mechanism is currently possible as an option when signing mandatory car insurance contracts (RCS). It implies a higher price for RCA policies.

The ASF president said that a law regulating direct compensation has been in Parliament for a long time, but it hasn't been approved so far. Thus, the head of ASF discussed with the former finance minister Florin Citu, the current prime minister, to start the procedures for an emergency ordinance. He said this would happen "probably in a relatively short time."

"We will continue to contact the Government to go through the procedures as soon as possible. The sooner this ordinance is approved, the sooner the situation in the market is settled," said Nicu Marcu.

Another measure prepared by the regulator could force insurance companies to come up with extra capital when reaching a certain market share to avoid situations in which they take on too much risk and can't pay the compensations. This measure would also lead to more expensive RCA policies as companies will no longer be interested in offering low prices to increase their market share.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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