How to Check an Insurance Company: Payouts, Reliability, and Ratings

You’re choosing an insurance company. Everything looks the same — polished websites, similar premiums, identical promises of “fast payouts.” Then a claim happens. And suddenly the company finds a reason to say no.

According to NBU data for Q4 2024, some Ukrainian non-resident insurers had loss ratios below 8% — meaning for every 100 hryvnias in premiums collected, they returned less than 8 to clients. That’s not insider information. It’s public data. It just sits there unread, because most people don’t know where to look.

Insurance is a trust contract with a deferred result. You pay today and only test the company’s honesty when it’s too late to switch. But you actually can verify everything in advance — for free, from open sources. That’s what this article is about.

# Loss ratio: where to find the numbers and how to read them

The loss ratio is the single most important number to know before signing anything. The formula is simple: payouts ÷ premiums × 100%. Find the data at bank.gov.ua under “Insurance → Quarterly Insurer Reports.”

The NBU publishes both aggregated statistics and per-company breakdowns. Download the latest quarter’s Excel file — you’ll see each insurer’s premium volume, payout volume, and number of contracts. That’s enough for a first-pass assessment.

But you have to read the numbers correctly. A loss ratio that’s too high — say, 110% — is also a red flag. The company is paying out more than it earns and may soon face a liquidity crunch. The healthy range depends on the type of insurance: 55–75% for OSAGO, 40–65% for KASKO, 70–85% for DMS. Anything below 20% in any segment means the company is essentially not paying clients.

Here’s what most people miss: don’t look at a single quarter — track the trend across 4–6 quarters. If the loss ratio jumps from 30% to 85% in one quarter, the portfolio structure probably changed, or the company absorbed a large claim. Consistency matters more than any single number.

For OSAGO specifically, there’s an additional source — the website of the Motor Transport Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (mtsbu.ua). The MTSBU tracks payout statistics for each member bureau, and those figures are often more precise than the NBU’s general reports for auto insurance specifically.

# NBU sanctions against insurers: how to find them and what they mean

The NBU issues sanctions for specific violations — not vague “poor practices,” but concrete things: delayed payouts, capital requirement breaches, inaccurate financial reporting. The full list is public.

Go to bank.gov.ua → “Insurance” → “Applied Enforcement Measures.” You’ll find a complete archive of sanctions showing the company name, date, type of violation, and the measure applied. Measures range from a written order (prescription) to a fine, licence suspension, or licence revocation.

A prescription isn’t necessarily catastrophic. The company broke a rule; the NBU demanded a fix. But if one company has accumulated 3–4 prescriptions over two years, that’s a pattern — not a one-off. A licence suspension means the company was legally barred from writing new policies during that period. If it kept selling them anyway, that’s a criminal matter.

And here’s a detail most reviews skip: sanctions are applied with a lag. The NBU audits companies for prior periods — so a 2025 sanctions registry may reflect violations from 2023–2024. Check beyond just the current year.

# Client complaints: where to find real reviews, not ads

Honestly — most “insurer reliability rankings” on Ukrainian sites are either paid placement or sorted by premium volume. Volume tells you size, not honesty. A company collecting UAH 2 billion ($50 million) in premiums can still have a 15% loss ratio and dozens of active court cases.

Where to actually look:

Unified State Register of Court Decisions (reyestr.court.gov.ua) — search the insurer’s name. Filter for cases where the company is the defendant in insurance disputes. For a large company, 10 cases per year is normal. 200 cases is a systemic denial operation.

NBU Consumer Complaints — the regulator’s site includes aggregated complaint statistics by company. Not always in a user-friendly format, but the data is there.

Minfin.ua — Ukraine’s most convenient insurance comparison portal. But keep in mind: the site earns from affiliate partnerships with insurers. Reviews are real but moderated. Use it as a first cut, not a final answer.

Forums and Telegram channels — Ukrainian industry forums (for example, dou.ua for DMS among IT professionals) surface real-world cases. Based on dou.ua discussions from 2024–2025, the most common DMS complaints weren’t about payout amounts — they were about delays and excessive documentation requirements. That’s a contract issue, not a financial stability issue.

But the most honest thing you can do? Find someone who actually received a payout from that specific company for that specific type of policy. Not “I’m happy with the service” — but “they paid me UAH 47,000 ($1,175) for a car accident in 23 days.” That kind of review is worth everything else combined.

# Insurance contracts: 5 clauses that hide a payout denial

The loss ratio describes a company’s past. The contract defines your future. And they don’t always align. You can pick an honest company and still sign a contract so loaded with exclusions that every claim becomes “not a covered event.”

1. The exclusions list — usually buried at the end of the contract in small print. Standard exclusions: intent, war, nuclear events. But some companies add things like “damage arising from operating a vehicle without a trip log” or “damage caused by third parties when alcohol was detected in the driver’s blood” — even if the insured person was a passenger. Read it literally.

2. The deductible — the amount you pay yourself on every claim. If the contract says “unconditional deductible: UAH 10,000” and your damage is UAH 12,000, the insurer pays UAH 2,000. Clarify the type: unconditional (always deducted) vs. conditional (if damage exceeds the threshold, the insurer pays in full).

3. Notification procedure — this is where many denials originate. “The policyholder must notify the company within 24 hours” sounds reasonable. But if the contract says “within 24 hours of discovery” and you noticed the damage Friday evening and called Monday morning — that’s a breach. And grounds for denial.

4. Document list — it must be specific. “Documents confirming the insured event” is a vague formulation that works against you. Demand an annex listing the exact documents required for your policy type.

5. Payment procedure and timeline — under Law No. 1909-IX, Article 35, the maximum review period is 90 days from submission of a complete document set. But “complete” is its own trap: the company can request documents one by one, resetting the clock each time. The contract should explicitly state that the 90-day period starts from submission of the full set per the approved list.

# Insurer won’t pay — what to do step by step

The insured event happened. Documents submitted. The company goes silent or issues a flat denial. What now?

Step 1 — written claim. Not a phone call, not a chat message — a formal written claim describing the event, the amount demanded, and a requirement to respond within 10 business days. Send it by registered mail with delivery confirmation, or deliver it in person with a signature on your copy. You’ll need this document for everything that follows.

Step 2 — NBU complaint. The form is at bank.gov.ua under “Consumer Rights Protection.” The NBU must review the complaint within 30 business days (Law No. 2745-VIII). In practice, the regulator can request explanations from the insurer and issue a prescription to remedy the violation.

Step 3 — court. File this in parallel with the NBU complaint — not instead of it. Under Law No. 1909-IX, a penalty accrues for each day the payout is overdue beyond the statutory deadline. The rate is set by the contract but can’t fall below twice the NBU’s discount rate. That penalty — plus legal costs recovered from the insurer — makes the court route financially worthwhile even for smaller claims.

One more thing: an independent assessor. If the company disputes the damage amount, you have the right to order an independent assessment and recover its cost from the insurer if you win in court. Don’t accept the first figure without verifying it.

# How to compare insurance companies using public data

Here’s a practical algorithm — no affiliate links, no sponsored recommendations.

Step 1. Go to bank.gov.ua → “Insurance” → “Insurer Registry.” Confirm the company is listed and the licence is active. If it’s not in the registry, the conversation ends there.

Step 2. Download the last two quarters of quarterly reports. Find the company by name. Calculate the loss ratio: payouts ÷ premiums × 100%. Check it against the benchmarks in the table above.

Step 3. Check “Applied Enforcement Measures” — sanctions over the last 24 months. Count prescriptions; a revoked licence is an immediate stop signal.

Step 4. On reyestr.court.gov.ua, enter the company’s name, filter by plaintiff/defendant, select civil or commercial case type. Count insurance disputes over the past year.

Step 5. Read the contract against the five points from the previous section.

And here’s my view — possibly a controversial one: rankings by premium volume actively harm consumers. They create the illusion that “big = reliable.” But a large market share just means more clients who can be denied. A smaller company with a 65% loss ratio and zero sanctions over three years is objectively a better choice than a market leader posting 18% payouts and five prescriptions.

So ask this directly — to the agent or the call centre: “Can you give me three real examples of payouts on this type of policy in the past year, with amounts?” An honest company will answer. A dishonest one will pivot to talking about “individual approach.”

# See also

• Banks for business in Ukraine
• Loans and credit for small business
• Insurance in Ukraine: overview and guides
• Currency and exchange rates

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