A note published on the Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission's website informs that FCMC decided to temporarily suspend, starting 16 April 2013, all operating licenses issued to the insurance joint stock company BALVA. The decision was made because of infringements of the law established in the activities of IJSC BALVA. According to the FCMC decision, the company will continue to fulfil the terms of contracts entered into with existing customers; however, it is not permitted to enter into new insurance contracts, to increase the insured sums or prolong the insurance contracts.

The current FCMC decision follows a previous restriction applied to BALVA by the market watchdog in March, with regard to the company's UK operations for which the company failed to offer enough details to the authority.

The main business lines on which the Riga-based company was operating were: insurance products covering liability for transport ownership, compulsory insurance, liability for transport ownership insurance (CASCO) as well as property, health and travel insurance. In addition, BALVA was operating in the UK through passporting rights, mostly on the GTPL insurance lines. More recently it entered the UK solicitors' PI business market, holding a 9% market share after just one year of activity in this field, with a portfolio of about 1,300 customers among the British law firms, as the British InsuranceInsight journal reveals.

Although the precise reasons of the FCMC decision are not known in detail, both the Latvian authority and the British Solicitors Regulation Authority along with the Financial Conduct Authority stated that the restriction does not affect the existing policies and will have no effect on the company's customers. According to the law, the company has six months to rectify the violations and remediate the deficiencies, under close supervision of FCMC.

BALVA Insurance Company was founded in 1992 in Riga as one of the first Latvian insurance companies. Since its foundation, BALVA has enjoyed a period of rapid development while being in a search for new opportunities.

In 2012 BALVA underwrote premiums worth EUR 18.9 million, holding an approx. 5% market share, and recorded EUR 1.96 million losses. The company recorded a 120% combined ratio and an 80% loss ratio.