Novis Italian customers can suspend the payment of premiums, carefully evaluating the consequences and taking advice from a independent expert. Novis, a Slovakian insurance company whose authorization to operate was revoked last June by Slovak National Bank, has not yet started the liquidation procedure and harshly contests the measure. The clash leaves around 23 thousand Italian customers in limbo.
Ivass returns to deal with the company with a note, where it explains that “although the company’s operating authorization was revoked on 5 June 2023, the company’s liquidation procedure has not yet started. Please note that according to Italian law, which applies to contracts stipulated in our country, policyholders can always decide to suspend premium payments after the first year of the policy. In this case it is necessary to carefully evaluate the consequences of this choice in light of the legal provisions and the contract conditions. Contact a independent expert or to a consumer association to help you best protect your interests”.
The provision of the Slovak authority
On June 5, the Slovak supervisory authority revoked Novis’s license license to carry out insurance business and prohibited the stipulation of new contracts. The company will have to limit itself to the activities “necessary to enforce its rights and pay off its liabilities”. Nbs, the Slovak authority, then made the request to put into liquidation of the company.
Novis suffered disputed the decision of the supervisory authority. The company also said it was “surprised by the amount of errors” contained in the provision. Last August Novis appealed against the provision of the NBS, the Slovak Central Bank, which has control powers over the insurance sector. Last chapter of a clash that has been going on since 2020.
The long clash with the authorities
However, the attention of the European authorities on the company comes from afar. The NBS had already issued measures to limit activities in 2020 and 2022when it froze the company’s operations between January and March for non-compliance the minimum limit of Solvency II.
It had also moved previously l’Ivasswhen in 2018 he reported a series of critical issues regarding a Novis product also sold in Italy and called Wealth Insuring. In 2022 Novis was at the top of the rankings complaints from Italian life insurance customerscon 142.9 complaints every 10 thousand contracts. To give a measure of size, the second operator (Mediolanum International Life) had received 16.9 complaints per 10 thousand contracts.
The company’s response
Novis sold policies in life insurance in Italy under the freedom to provide services regime but does not have an Italian corporate structure. It mainly sold policies in Italy unit linked. Responding to a note from Confconsumatori last October, Novis explained that “the disputed NBS provision did not entail consequences for existing customers”. While spreading “a misleading message (can) trigger unjustified alarmism, also pushing customers to disinvest, with damage to themselves”.