INSURANCE companies invested £500 million in the Stock Exchange between 1999 and 2000, and lost around 70 per cent of it when the index eventually took a plunge. Now, insurance policy holders are asking for payback for the £350 million lost, says the chairman of the association for insured people (PASEPA), Georgios Christoforou.
The chairman highlighted that as a result of the millions invested in the stock exchange by insurance companies, hundreds of people who took out life investment schemes are now on the verge of destruction.
Christoforou submitted a letter to the House of Representatives, the Insurance Superintendent and the Attorney-general, which stated that, “hundreds of workers have been left without any financial support, since insurance companies managed to take money from both their savings and their provident fund”. He estimates that around 1,500 were affected by the actions of insurance companies.
PASEPA organised a demonstration on Monday before submitting a letter, calling for help from the Insurance Superintendent Victoria Nadar, the House and the Attorney-general’s office.
Insurance policy holders have made 300 charges against insurance companies, claiming that, by one way or the other, the insurance companies mislead them and as a result, policyholders lost their savings and contributions to the policies.
AKEL deputy Stavros Evagorou said the matter would be discussed in the House Finance Committee, maintaining that the charges were being looked into.
Meanwhile, a number of cases have already gone to court against insurance companies. Christoforou insisted that association members were determined to take the matter to the European Court.
Charges were made against the superintendent for violating legislation regarding the cap set on investments by insurance companies on the stock market.
Insurance companies were also charged in the memo for misleading people by giving false information, as well as for ignoring the law between 1999 and 2000, resulting in the insuring of non-applicable persons who for reasons of age or health did not have the right to be insured.
Evagorou acknowledged that companies invested more than the law allowed with the result of huge losses for those insured.
Insurance Companies Association Vice President, Polis Michailides, rejected the charges against the companies in yesterday’s Phileleftheros. He described the charges as vague and groundless.
