Financial Services, Insurance, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

The bureau said that the situation this year has deteriorates as loss in the first three months of this year has risen 2.4 times from the respective period last year.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of road accidents in Latvia and abroad increased. One of the reasons is the growing number of transport vehicles, the bureau said. Also, the number of accidents abroad is growing because more and more Latvians are traveling abroad with their vehicles registered in Latvia.

In the first quarter of this year, insurers made 11,352 decisions on indemnities worth EUR 10.63 million, which is by 9.6% less from the respective period last year. The average indemnity was by 13.4% lower year-on-year. The average size of indemnity paid for road accidents abroad has declined by 32.3% from the first three months of 2015, still it is 3.3 times bigger than the average indemnity paid for road accidents in Latvia.

The MTPL insurance system was introduced in Latvia in 1997.

Latvian insurance companies incurred a loss of EUR 11.663 million from MTPL insurance in 2015. The amount of losses sustained by the MTPL insurance industry in 2015 is the largest since 2007.