Citizens Complained to Hanfa Most About Insurance and Acquisition of Turisthotel Last Year

When it comes to financial services, citizens feel most deprived in their relationships with insurance companies, and more and more are troubled by the way shares of companies are acquired on the stock market. The Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) has published a report on complaints from users of financial services for the past year, specifically regarding the complaints it received as the regulator of the financial sector from citizens. The report states that it received 198 complaints last year, which is 16 percent more than the annual average for the period from 2016 to 2023. Compared to 2022, complaints increased by one-fifth.

In addition to complaints, Hanfa also receives inquiries in a more informal manner, via email, a form on Hanfa’s website, social media, and consumer phone lines. In 2023, 295 inquiries were recorded via email, according to the report. As in previous years, the largest number of complaints last year related to the area of insurance, with 104 complaints, or 53 percent of all received complaints. Hanfa points out that this is a slight decrease in the share of complaints in the area of insurance compared to the previous year, when they accounted for 61 percent.

High Representation of Complaints

– The high representation of complaints from the area of insurance can be attributed to the very characteristics of this financial service, which is widely spread across almost all segments of the daily lives of financial service users, as indicated by the large number of insurance contracts concluded. For example, from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, the number of insurance policies concluded amounted to 13.2 million. Therefore, it is not unexpected that the largest number of disputes between insurance companies and financial service users will occur in this segment of the financial services market, the report explains.

The most significant problems, from the users’ perspective, were in the area of the validity of claims for damage compensation and the obligation to pay damages or insurance benefits.

– Consumer inquiries and complaints to a lesser extent relate to the processing of damage claims and mutual communication, which is closely related to the level of financial literacy of consumers and their awareness of their rights and obligations, as well as the rights and obligations of insurance companies, states Hanfa’s document.

The reduced share of complaints from the area of insurance in 2023 was also partly a result of the increase in the number of complaints from the capital market, especially in the first half of 2023 when Hanfa received a total of 22 complaints from that area. More than half of those inquiries related to complaints from minority shareholders of a joint-stock company regarding the acquisition of the company and the share price. Given the timing of the complaints, it can be inferred that this concerns the acquisition of the Zadar-based Turisthotel by Tankerska Plovidba.

In Other Areas, Stagnation

It is worth noting that in the conducted takeover offer, the Zadar shipping company acquired almost 55 percent of the shares at a price of 76.98 euros. The acquisition was marked by resistance from the Management Board and the then largest shareholder Frane Skoblar. The acquisition was also marked by a scandal involving the reporting of Turisthotel due to suspicion of disclosing privileged information via electronic messages, which Hanfa conducted additional oversight on.

In the second half of the year, the number of complaints from the capital market significantly decreased, with only nine received.

– The total number of complaints from this area for the entire year of 2023 thus amounted to 16 percent of the total number of complaints, which is a slight increase compared to 11 percent in 2022. The topics that appeared in complaints from this area included, for example, company acquisitions, reduction of share capital, market abuse, and the emergence of obligations to announce takeover offers for companies, the report states.

The number of complaints from the leasing area did not change significantly compared to the previous year, with a total of nine received in 2023. In the area of the pension system during 2023, similar to previous years, a smaller number of inquiries were received, with only two complaints, according to the report.