COUNTRY UPDATE – Serbia: Insurance 2023
(Contribution by Aleksandar Mladenovic, Attorney at Law in Rokas Belgrade, published in Thomson Reuters, Regulatory Intelligence, Country update – Serbia: Insurance, August 2023)
Does Solvency II apply/Has Serbia implemented Solvency II?
As a candidate country for joining the EU, Serbia is obliged to ensure that its laws are compliant with the acquis communitaire. The
Insurance law, which was adopted on December 26, 2014, is considered to be compliant with the Solvency II rules according to
the legislator as provided in the reasoning for the adoption of the new law and assessment of its effects. In May 2021 the regulator
published a Strategy for implementation of Solvency II, whereby the process of implementation shall be effected in three phases: (i)
compliance analysis, which was completed in 2017; (ii) assessment of effects of implementation, which is pending and is conducted
through quantitative studies of the impact of requirements of the first pillar of Solvency II on capital adequacy and technical reserves
of insurance companies; and (iii) final phase, which will include the adjustment of the regulatory framework through the amendments
of the Law on Insurance in the part related to the performance of business insurance and reinsurance and supervision of insurance/
reinsurance companies and groups of companies for insurance/reinsurance. In addition, it is planned to prepare a draft (amendment) of
the Law on bankruptcy and liquidation of banks and insurance companies, which will transpose the framework of Solvency II in the part
related to reorganisation and liquidation/bankruptcy of companies for insurance/reinsurance in the Republic of Serbia.
Introduction/overview
At the end of 2022, there were 20 (re)insurance companies operating in the Republic of Serbia. Sixteen companies engaged in
insurance business, and four in reinsurance business. Of the companies engaged in insurance business, four companies deal
exclusively with life insurance, and six companies each deal exclusively with non-life insurance, i.e., both life and non-life insurance.
According to the ownership structure of capital, out of 20 companies, 15 are in foreign majority ownership.
In the sales network, in addition to (re)insurance companies, there are also: 17 banks, eight financial leasing providers and a public
postal operator, which received consent to perform insurance representation activities, 109 legal entities and insurance representation
companies, 78 insurance agents (natural persons- entrepreneurs) and 4,338 active authorised persons for performing representation
activities, i.e., insurance mediation activities.
Regulators
The main regulator in the insurance sector is the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) which, through its administration for the supervision
of financial institutions, has supervised the insurance sector since 2004, when this authorisation was transferred from the Ministry of
Finance.
Through its administration for the supervision of financial institutions, NBS also supervises banks and other financial institutions in
Serbia and ensures integrated supervision for the whole financial sector in Serbia.
The law provides that NBS supervises insurance activities in Serbia with the main aim to protect interests of insureds and other
beneficiaries of insurance and to ensure the stability of financial system. In this regard NBS issues and withdraws re/insurance
operation licences, insurance intermediation as well as for businesses directly connected to insurance licences, provides approval
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