site.btaFinancial Supervision Commission to Probe Alleged Spike in Third Party Liability Insurance

The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) has launched a probe into an alleged price increase of the compulsory third party liability insurance with a view to taking supervisory measures if needed, the FSC said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Kiril Rizov, chair of the Taxi Union not-for-profit association, told a news conference at BTA's National Press Club in Sofia that taxi drivers would stage a national protest on November 20 over an increase in the compulsory insurance premium

FSC said the probe had been launched even before the organization of taxi operators and drivers alerted the Commission on November 5. Although the Commission cannot collect information on insurance rates charged by local insurers as this is prohibited by EU law, the Commission has the right to collect information on individual insurance rate schedules for specific supervisory purposes, including following complaints or alerts about violations of insurance regulatory acts, the Commission said.

Taxi drivers said in an open letter on November 3 that the President, the Prime Minister, the Transport Minister and the new Parliament should address the problem which impacts their industry. They claimed that insurance companies unexpectedly hiked the third party insurance premium for taxi vehicles by between 300% and 1000% in October.