Why Grawe received the biggest fines from ASF this year. The company's reaction after people in the management received fines of tens of thousands of euros

The Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) decided to impose fines of over 900,000 lei to Grawe and six people from the management of this company, “for deficiencies in governance and risk management, which also affected RCA's claims management activity”, the authority's officials told HotNews. On the other hand, Grawe claims that most of the deficiencies have been remedied and that the sanctions do not cover the payment of damages or the handling of petitions.

The ASF and Grawe clarifications came after HotNews requested explanations regarding unofficial information regarding the application of these fines, published on May 4 by the News Office. The fine was imposed on Grawe on April 8. Grawe is the fourth largest RCA insurer on the Romanian market.

How ASF explains the reasons for the fines from Grawe

The Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) specified, at the request of HotNews, that the sanctioning decisions are related “mainly to the company's governance system related to the risk management activity”.

“This is the main explanation for sanctioning both the people with responsibilities in the risk management activity (executive management, actuary, internal audit manager, compliance manager) and the way of applying these responsibilities.

The effect of the identified deficiencies were also identified in the claims management activity. It was not simply an assessment based on compliance requirements, but also a risk-based assessment. Risk management is an essential activity for any financial institution. For this reason, the sanctions applied had a relatively high value”, stated the ASF.

More precisely, the Grawe company was fined 534,200 lei “for the inadequacy of internal control mechanisms, including in terms of risk identification, assessment, monitoring, management and reporting processes and for the establishment on 30.06.2025 of an insufficient level of the RCA approved damage reserve”.

What does “insufficient level of RCA approved claims reserve” mean?

RCA approved claims reserves, technically called (RBNS – Reported But Not Settled), are created for those claims already reported to the insurer, but still unpaid / not fully settled.

When an accident occurs and the victim files a claim, the insurer creates a reserve. This is an amount of money “locked up” in the books, estimated to cover the total cost of repairs or personal injuries for that specific case.

If this level was insufficient, it means that the funds were not enough to cover the payment of claims.

Large fines for people in Grawe's management

In addition to sanctioning the company, three more people from Grawe's management and three others with positions in claims management, actuarial and compliance procedures within the company were also fined:

• Monica Spataru, directorate vice president: 132,600 lei
• Dragoș Călin, managing director: 100,400 lei
• Voicu Cristian, managing member: 100,400 lei
• Căescu Liviu Ciprian, critical function damages: 20,200 lei
• Onofriesei Mihaela Andreea, key function actuary: 12,500 lei
• Andreea Balint, key compliance function: 12,500 lei

For what ASF gave individual fines

According to the ASF, all three members of Grawe's management were fined mainly because “they did not take the necessary measures for the adequacy, within the governance system of the company, of the internal policies, so that the way of determining the compensation takes into account the jurisprudence and the practice of the company, is adapted to the economic reality and, implicitly, within the governance system to ensure a correct, efficient and prudent administration of the activities specific to the establishment/maintenance RCA approved damage reserve”.

Monica Spătaru, the directorate's vice-president, was additionally sanctioned because, as “responsible for the activity of the outsourced internal audit function, it was not ensured that the outsourced internal audit function fulfilled its tasks by adopting, in a realistic way, a risk-based approach in establishing priorities and that an adequate audit plan was maintained”, according to the ASF data.

Căescu Liviu Ciprian, with a critical claims function, was fined “for the fact that he did not ensure the fulfillment of the obligations stipulated by the internal procedures for verifying the calculation of the approved claims reserve for certain claims files”.

Onofriesei Mihaela Andreea, with key actuary function, was fined “for the fact that the specific activities carried out in order to identify the risk of reserves led to the framing of this risk at a much lower level than the real one”.

Andreea Balint, with the key function of compliance, was sanctioned “for not fulfilling all her obligations provided by the legal framework applicable to this function”.

How big are these fines?

“Law 237/2015 provides a maximum of the fine that can be applied to insurers of 5,000,000 lei and, in the case of people in management and key/critical functions, a maximum of 1,000,000 lei. It should be noted that the findings were related to the efficiency of some processes as well as the behavior of some people and not to the financial situation of the company,” ASF officials also specified for HotNews.

Grawe's reaction: We analyze the content of the ASF decision and the possible actions

HotNews.ro requested Grawe's point of view on these fines and whether or not he will challenge them in court.

“We are analyzing the content of the ASF decision and the possible actions. The deficiencies found as a result of the ASF control are in the evaluation process, and most of them have already been remedied since last year and are fully reflected in the financial statements related to 2025,” stated Grawe officials.

“The issues that were the basis of the sanctions do not concern the payment of compensation or the management of petitions,” the company also said, adding that it “maintains its long-term commitment to customers and partners, supported by financial stability and investments made consistently by shareholders over time.”

What other insurers have been fined this year

Although the fines received by Grawe are the largest this year, it is not the only insurer sanctioned.

In January of this year, the ASF fined the company Signal Iduna Asigurare Reasigurare with 34,200 lei for non-compliance with the provisions of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35.

In February, the leader of the insurance market, Groupama, was fined 23,800 lei for non-compliance with legal requirements regarding the internal control system. In the same month, the German Romanian Assurance company was fined 7,100 lei for the company's non-compliance with legal requirements regarding product governance.

In March of this year, BRD Asigurări de Life and Asirom VIG were sanctioned with a written warning for not complying with some reporting requirements provided by law no. 129/2019 for the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing.