Kosice Court Starts Bankruptcy Proceedings against Rapid Life Insurer

Kosice, January 18 (TASR) – The Kosice I District Court has ruled to open bankruptcy proceedings against the bankrupt life insurance company Rapid Life based in Kosice, TASR learnt from a decision published in the Commercial Bulletin on Thursday.

The proposal for the bankruptcy proceedings was filed in late November by the insurer’s administrator Irena Sopkova. As she said the bankruptcy proceedings already have legal effects, the court is active in the matter and has evaluated that the company is in bankruptcy. “In this case, within five days from the publication in the Commercial Bulletin, bankruptcy should be declared and a bankruptcy trustee should be determined, thus ending the activities of the forced administrator,” Sopkova told TASR.

After declaring the bankruptcy, Rapid Life clients will have 45 days to apply their requests. “There are 14,730 individuals and about 50 legal entities that are affected, in a total amount of €26 million,” said the administrator, adding that the company’s assets were negligible on the date of filing the bankruptcy motion. The question then is, whether the clients will get any money.

The Slovak central bank (NBS) imposed the forced administration in the insurance company in mid-June 2017. This was due to the finding that the insurer was seriously threatening the rights of its clients. The administrator filed a criminal motion against the statutory representatives.

According to the insurance company’s former management, the declaration of the forced administration was illegal, thus breaching their right to a fair trial.