A month after the Development Ministry warned that nearly half of Greece’s car insurance firms were on the verge of insolvency, it revealed yesterday that only one company was now in danger of not receiving the all clear.

However, the change in the situation comes after an injection of over 241 million euros from the firms over the last month to make up for shortfalls in their capital reserves. This marked a rise of more than 27 percent in the total reserves held by all the companies in the sector.

At the end of January, Deputy Development Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou said that the first ever effective checks on companies operating in the car insurance market had revealed that 22 out of the 49 did not meet the required solvency margin. He added that the combined shortfall came to 133 million euros and that defaulters would be shut down.

Papathanassiou said yesterday that 21 out of the 22 delinquent companies had done enough to be issued with certificates of solvency since his January announcement. The one firm not to comply, InterHellas, rejected the results of the initial ministry probe and asked for a more thorough check.

The deputy minister pledged that checks on the status of reserves kept by car insurance firms would continue in the future. He also said the government would recall transparency certificates for any company found to be using its capital for unapproved transactions, such as bogus purchases or investments.

A recently passed law also gives the ministry the authority to order an investigation into any firm suspected of contravening industry rules, the cost of which will have to be covered by the company itself, Papathanassiou added.