Galery

1

True to the domino effect, the companies on the Greek insurance market began to leave the game one after another. The small insurance company Eurostar is the next in the list of default companies as it is not able to implement the recommendation of the Private Insurance Supervisory Committee to the Bank of Greece and to raise an additional equity capital of 10 million euros. Following an inspection in February this year, the Private Insurance Supervisory Committee warned the management of Eurostar that it should resort to capital increase or the existence of the company is at risk. Obviously, the severe economic environment and the general lack of liquidity on the market proved to be decisive and the management of the company warned the employees the same month that there was no where to find the necessary funds.

According to a publication in Imerisia, the company took care to transfer the majority of the insurance contracts to other companies in the sector and in early May the Bank of Greece announced its inglorious withdrawal. Eurostar operated mainly in the field of motor vehicles insurances and held about 96,000 insurance contracts until recently. It is the second insurance company that declared insolvency since the beginning of the year among the three ones for which the Private Insurance Supervisory Committee had given a red light. One of the other two (Ευρωπαϊκή Πίστη) went bankrupt and the other (Minetta Insurance) resorted to a capital increase to keep on the surface.

According to Insurance World, the Minetta Insurance Company was imposed a mandatory capital increase by 15 million euros, which seems to have proved successful. Moreover, in mid-April this year Imerisia announced that the insurance companies Minetta, Dinamis AEGA and Atlantic Alliance (Ατλαντική Ένωση) negotiate a merger. The idea is to form a larger, stable and entirely Greek company to withstand the pressure of market competition and international insurance giants such as ING, Allianz and other powerful companies in the private insurance.

The supervisors’ communication for the closure of Eurostar says that the company's assets were frozen after an audit earlier this year. Then, a plan for economic recovery was presented, which was not fulfilled unfortunately. This has led to the revocation of the license of the company. The attorney Antigoni Vafidiou is currently appointed to represent the company in court in the claim for appointing a liquidator. The company stopped paying compensations and is not allowed to accept insurance premiums on its customers’ policies. The Private Insurance Supervisory Committee warns the citizens with insured vehicles at Eurostar that within a month after that announcement, which came out yesterday evening, they should find a new insurance company to secure the necessary insurance for their vehicles.

From Monday May 9^th, 2011 the insured at Eurostar will be able to contact for more information the appointed attorney of the firm Adigoni Vafidiou by phone +30210922356 between 10 am and 2 pm on weekdays.