OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2015. The Bank of Russia Expert Council on Insurance sat for a meeting on 27 August 2015 to consider quality of the assets permissible for the placement of insurance reserves as well as to discuss issues of crime prevention in insurance.

The Expert Council members discussed a change in the approach to invest insurance reserves and capital of insurance companies into assets with limited liquidity and also to strengthen payment requirements. They looked into the issue of excluding land plots from the possible objects of such investments as well as of reducing the share of permissible investments into real estate. Besides, a proposal was put forward to review the current limits on investment of the said funds of insurance companies into the units of investment funds.

Also under discussion were the issues to exclude from the list of assets open for insurers’ capital investments the economic assets, deferred tax assets and to reduce the share of companies’ receivables as well as to specify their composition.

A special attention was given to tighten the requirements dealing with asserting of rights for securities in non-specialised depositaries. A proposal was made to clarify the meaning of ‘related parties’.

The proposals voiced at the Expert Council are aimed at rehabilitation of insurers’ balance structure through not investing into dubious instruments and augmenting the share of quality investments.

The Expert Council members also discussed the examples of standard fraud schemes in vehicle insurance, life insurance and in agricultural risk coverage. Proposals were made to repress the said violations of law including the development of the legal framework of consumer right protection and adequate internal controls in insurance companies.

The meeting stressed the necessity for a system approach to the prevention and suppression of crimes in the insurance and also discussed the issues of interaction with law enforcement bodies and a possibility to set up a working group to focus on the said subject.