Dziennik Ubezpieczeniowy, 13.05.2008

Consumers in a better position?

The second day of the Motor Insurance Forum organized by the Pro Motor Association was a quite comprehensive insight into consumer protection in motor insurance.

All speakers claimed that the consumers’ legal environment is gradually improving. The situation is particularly observable in Poland. Aleksander Daszewski, deputy director of the Office of Insurance Ombudsman remarked that the current situation is caused by a number of factors, including strongly pro-consumer insurance act package effected in 2004, and amendments to the civil code regarding insurance contracts of 13 April 2007.

Aleksander Daszewski said that consumers’ growing insurance and especially compensation awareness plays a crucial role in the discussed issue. Mr Daszewski also noted that consumers’ increased awareness and recent problems faced by insurers (e.g. Religa tax or dynamic growth in direct channels) have led to some noisome competition between insurance companies (…)

Other European countries settle insurance disputes far better. Alison Hoyland, policy team manager of the FSA Ombudsman Office in GB (…) noted that 22% of complaints lodged with the ombudsman concerns insurance and 62% of those complaints are related to losses and claims. Ms Hoyland stressed the effectiveness of the FSA, which has issued a guidebook for the financial sector, giving instructions on how to reply to consumers’ complaints.

Sylvie Chahn, consultant in the Motor Department of the French FFSA presented the activities of independent loss adjustors’ network as an example of pro-consumer policy. In practice, all insurers have independent adjustors in their claims handling network. (…) The whole claims handling process is also facilitated by the fact that in France police reports are used very occasionally, only for major accidents. This allows the adjustors to determine the circumstances more efficiently, enabling the insurer to pay claims quicker.