The Superintendencia de Pensiones (Supen), the interim regulator of the Costa Rican insurance market, recently issued an opinion stating that the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) and its component entities are not permitted to engage in insurance or reinsurance business outside of the country, whether by acquisition, establishment or joint venture.

Costa Rican President Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez recently signed into law the new Ley Reguladora del Mercado de Seguros.

While relatively small in comparison to the major Latin American insurance markets, Costa Rica is the largest insurance market in Central America (excluding Panama).

In August 2008, Costa Rican President Dr. Oscar Arias Sanchez signed into law Costa Rica’s new Ley Reguladora del Mercado de Seguros, thereby ending the Instituto Nacional de Seguros’ (INS) more than eighty-year-old monopoly over the country’s insurance industry.

Although all of the jurisdictions had notable regulatory and market developments in 2008, Costa Rica stands out as particularly significant given the the fundamental nature of the developments seen there in the past year.