February 11, 2016, 17:57 / Finance

Insurers prematurely promised a universal replacement of MTPL policies

Goznak denied this; most likely, there will be no need to change policies Vedomosti

Z. Milyavskaya / Vedomosti

Motorists most likely will not have to change their existing MTPL policies to new ones. Goznak denied the statement of the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA): there will be no immediate update of existing forms of MTPL policies from July 2016, Natalya Nikiforova, assistant general director of Goznak for public relations, told TASS.

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According to her, we are only talking about the start of printing new policy forms. Replacement of documents already in circulation will be carried out only at the initiative of the policy holder, Nikiforova points out.

“We didn’t talk to them (from RSA - Vedomosti) about the date. It’s not smart to do this all at once, to create a fuss. What we mean when we talk about replacement is that from a certain date, so that they issue only new ones, and do not change those (policies) that are in circulation,” she explained.

Earlier, RSA President Igor Yurgens said that approximately by July 1, motorists will have to replace all OSAGO policies with new ones due to the increase in fraud. This decision, according to him, was made by the RSA Presidium on February 11. This measure will allow counterfeit policies to be removed from circulation, and will also complicate the possibility of producing a new counterfeit, he believes.

According to Yurgens, policy forms will be completely updated, and the degree of their protection will increase.

True, the decision has not yet been agreed upon with the Central Bank: a proposal from the RSA to update the OSAGO forms has not yet been received, TASS quotes the regulator’s press service.

Forced replacement of policy forms for all motorists would not lead to anything, but would only anger car owners, who are not at all to blame for the increase in fraud, says Alexander Koval, chairman of the organization for protecting the rights of policyholders “For Fair Payments”. Insurers “raised their rates,” and this was the reason for the intensification of fraud, he believes. Banknotes already have a higher degree of security, but fraudsters still counterfeit banknotes, reminds Koval: “As soon as new policy forms appear, fraudsters will also make counterfeits.”