Montepio denies financial black hole in insurers’ accounts

 In Companies, Insurance, News

The banking and financial services group Montepio has denied that its insurance companies have a €160 million black hole.

The assertion had been made by the newspaper Público that its two insurance companies Lusitânia Seguros and Lusitânia Vida had clocked up the losses because of its exposure to Russian assets.
The newspaper had stated that Montepio had lost €160 million of own capital in the first five months of the year.
According to Público these losses mostly derived from the impact of its exposure to over €20 million worth of securities from two Russian companies and that the situation had aroused concern from the insurance supervisor.
However, Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral (AMMG) says it does not have any “black hole” in its accounts and that its exposure to Russian assets has not put its solvency at risk.
In a statement to Lusa, an official source at AMMG told Lusa that “following the start of the war in Ukraine, AMMG began a monitoring process of the securities of (these) Russian companies”.
“The monitoring process of these securities is centred around evaluating the values of the same since they cannot be sold given the limitations imposed on Russian assets”, it says.
AMMG adds that it is also monitoring the interest payments on the part of the issuers and, in the case of Lusitânia Seguros and Lusitânia Vida, has confirmed that “the due payment was paid in line with the conditions of each one of the issues”.
“The interest payments were made after the start of the war and the imposition of sanctions on Russian assets of all the securities from Gazprom and Novolipetsk”.
AMMG stresses that the “measures already taken, and which will continue to be developed by the Board, will ensure that Lusitânia Vida will operate in the insurance market without any limitations and with solid ratios, providing protection and savings for its clients”.