Finance Minister, Marcos Kyprianou, ratified on Monday the decision of the Insurance Superintendent not to grant a work license to MarkeTrends Insurance, putting an end to the long dispute between the Company and the supervisory authority. The rejection of the hierarchical appeal means that the company is no longer able to exercise its insurance operations and renew the insurance contracts.

“We respect the decision of the Minister. Our company will cease its new operations, but it reserves all its legal rights”, General Manager of MarkeTrends Insurance, Demetris Aletraris told StockWatch, invited to comment on the latest developments.

The decision of the Finance Minister has put an end to a long dispute between the Superintendent and the Company, which started in February 2003, when the Superintendent refused to grant a license to MI. MI filed, then, a hierarchical appeal, which was successful. In November, however, the Superintendent refused to renew the work license and MI filed a new hierarchical appeal, which was finally rejected.

MFS

The holding company of MI, MarkeTrends Financial Services, announced today that the rejection of the appeal of MI will not affect the results of MFS, since the company accumulated losses for the past few years. MI employs 18 persons as permanent staff.

Insurance sector

Since 1990, the Superintendent cancelled the license of six insurance companies, four of which (including MI) lost their license in the past three years (Winvest, Aigis and Akritas).