Armenian insurance companies are getting increasingly unhappy with the Armenia's Single Window for Automotive (ASWA) platform, designed for handling vehicle insurance-related cases because of suffering additional losses, as Hayk ARAKELYAN, the head of the Union of Insurance Agents, said.

According to ARAKELYAN and the Union online sales via ASWA may lead to MTPL price increase as well as the platform reduces insurance opportunities for agents significantly. Also, as ARAKELYAN noted, the problem is that the service cost of ASWA software (about AMD 1-1.5 billion, ~up to EUR 2.7 million) per year is too high for insurers to pay, taking into consideration growing number of compensation claims.

ARAKELYAN suggests that insurers have to cut premiums in order to compensate the software cost, so to avoid this, a locally-designed analogue of the French software to be used (as effective as the French one, but much cheaper). As he pointed out, ASWA had been chosen by the Bureau of Motor Insurers of Armenia without consulting with local insurance companies.

ASWA was launched on November 1, 2017. It is a web-based platform, designed for digital exchange of information and regulation of issues related to mandatory insurance of vehicles. From November 1, 2017 to December 31, 2018, over 1 million of insurance contracts had been signed via ASWA platform. ASWA is connected to insurance companies, traffic police, contract databases, as well as other systems, thus enabling collection and analysis of all related data in one place. Vehicle owners can conclude online contracts through the website of the Bureau of Motor Insurers (www.appa.am), by using payment terminals, on websites of insurance companies, using mobile applications and online banking systems, as well as the ASWA website itself.