The number of pending claims from insurance companies increased in 2023

2024-02-05 08:26:56, Ekonomi CNA

The number of pending claims from insurance companies increased last year.

According to data from the Financial Supervisory Authority (AMF), at the end of 2023 non-life insurance companies reported 10,621 pending claims, with an increase of 23.3% compared to the same period of the previous year.

However, in terms of value, pending damages are presented at a lower level compared to a year ago. According to data from the AMF, at the end of last year the value of pending damages reached ALL 6.3 billion, 4.1% less compared to the previous year.

Pending damages include cases under assessment, damages approved but unpaid, or damages that are the subject of litigation. Normally, insurance companies always have a certain number of claims pending at any time due to the time required to process them or even due to the transfer of cases to the courts, in cases where the client does not agree with the amount of the estimated damage from the insurance company. However, in the past year the practices of suspended damages have increased.

In part, the increase in the number of pending claims can be explained by the addition of claims or insurance events that occurred in total. Last year, non-life insurance companies reported 58,686 claims paid, up 5.35% over the previous year. However, if we look at the ratio of pending claims to total reported claims (paid claims plus pending claims), this ratio has increased to 15.3%, from 13.4% a year ago.

The number of pending claims from insurance companies increased in 2023

The Law "On Compulsory Insurance in the Transport Sector" that was approved in 2021 provides that the deadline for handling damages to persons by the insurance company will be 90 days, while the deadline for damage to property will be 30 days. However, for damages of small value, up to 100 thousand ALL, a shorter period of 14 days has been defined.

Furthermore, the insurance company must make the compensation payment within 14 days after the end of the claim handling period and the signing of the compensation acceptance statement. In case of non-compliance with the deadline defined in this article, the injured party has the right to benefit from the interest payable for each day of delay in paying the compensation from the insurance company.

Despite the fact that the new law has tried to reduce the deadlines for dealing with cases of small value, again the number of pending insurance claims and their share in relation to the total appears to be increasing./ Monitor.al