Romanian market regulator ASF said it ponders capping car insurance fees "in order to protect consumers."

This comes after it released the new benchmark prices for the third-party liability car insurance contracts (RCA), which are higher, among others, to cover for the losses generated by the bankruptcy of City Insurance last year.

"To protect consumers, the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) is considering capping the RCA tariffs for a limited period. We will see exactly what the concrete solution is," ASF's spokesperson Daniel Apostol said, according to Economica.net.

The statement comes after Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu commented on the higher RCA fees, assuring that the authorities will react "as they did in the case of City Insurance" if another bankruptcy occurs in the market, Libertatea reported.

He most likely meant the price capping mechanism, and not the superficial monitoring and sluggish actions that made possible the bankruptcy and the frauds at City Insurance – after the bankruptcy of Astra Insurance several years earlier. 

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)