YEREVAN, November 12. /ARKA/. Complaints related to obligatory car insurance dominate the total number of the complaints about insurance companies the Armenian financial ombudsman’s office receives, Armenian Financial Ombudswoman Piruz Sargsyan said on Wednesday.

She told journalists that the office has received 7,753 complaints against financial organizations, of which 1,830 were against insurance companies, including 1,296 complaints connected with mandatory car insurance, 212 with other types of car insurance and 267 with medical insurance.

“Complaints against insurance companies make up a significant part of the total number of complaints, and we see that the number of complaints is growing about 1.5 times every year,” Sargsyan said.

“Complaints on mandatory car insurance make up 70% of complaints against insurance companies.”
She said that the most of complainants dispute damage assessment asking the financial ombudsman office for independent experts’ assistance.

Sargsyan said that decisions on 62-67% of the total number of complaints are made in favor of clients. The biggest number of disputes is settled amicably, but very often the office confirms clients’ rights.

“The difference in assessments ranges from 3,000 drams to 20% of the initial amount,” she said. “There are certain factors in the assessment system which should be taken into account.”

According to the office’s report released in early September, the office has received 7,192 complaints since January, 2009, and about 554 million drams has been paid to complainants as compensations.

Some 2,055 complaints against financial organizations, mostly banks and insurance companies, were filed to the financial ombudsman’s office in 2014 alone, and financial organizations paid about 101 million drams to complainants mostly voluntarily under the financial ombudsman’s mediation. ($1 – AMD 415.30). -----0------