I car insurance prices are continuing to decline in Italy, despite the fact that accidents have returned to increase after the end of the restrictions related to the pandemic. This was underlined by the number one of ANIA, Maria Bianca Farina, during the annual meeting of the Association, specifying that the companies intervene “on contracts through discounts, suspensions (increased by over 40%) e deadline deferment: these are operations that are still ongoing".
Thus Farina responds, indirectly, to the solicitations received from the president of IVASS, Federico Signorini, against the companies that have not yet provided discounts or refreshments to customers in the face of the exceptional situation that occurred in 2020, when the crash in accidents linked to the lockdown allowed insurers to achieve strong gains in the motor liability sector.
"I take note of the initiatives, adopted or in progress - said Signorini during the Ania assembly - that the companies and the association itself, with the appreciable interventions that President Farina has just reported, are taking following the exceptional trends of the 2020. On the policies adopted in this regard by individual companies, policyholders will be the best judges".
Farina later recalled that in the last ten years the average motor liability price has decreased by over 200 euros: from almost 570 euros in 2012 it went down to 367 in March 2021. In this way, the difference with other European countries was reduced by almost 80%, going down from 208 euros in 2013 to 47 in 2020.
"We are aware that there is still work to be done - continues the number one of ANIA - The time is ripe to get to a reform of the branch along two lines: on the one hand, to increase accessibility by reducing the overall costs of the system and eliminating the gaps that still exist; on the other, to restore the founding values of equity and rewarding of the system, through a reform of the 'Bonus Malus' which has, in fact, lost the effectiveness of its role. In the longer term, it will be necessary to be ready and proactive to face the changes in mobility that will have very significant impacts on the motor insurance sector: the diffusion of electric and self-driving vehicles, the development of cars and related infrastructures, the spread of intermodal travel". .
The Prime Minister also spoke at the Ania meeting with a message, Mario Draghi, underlining that Italian insurance companies have a crucial role and that their support through investments "will be essential to support the Italian restart". The Premier then added that closer public-private collaboration is needed to overcome the new risks and structural vulnerabilities.
IVASS: BEWARE OF ILLIQUID INSTRUMENTS IN INSURANCE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Signorini then issued a warning to insurance companies to pay close attention to illiquid instruments on their balance sheets. “Yesterday, Wednesday, we issued a letter to the market – explained the number one of the Insurance Supervisory Institute – to remind companies of the need to have suitable safeguards for the management of illiquid and opaque financial instruments. In recent years, IVASS inspections have highlighted an increasing presence of complex instruments in the portfolios of some companies. The growth of this category of assets, due in part to the search for yield in a context of low interest rates, has not always been accompanied by an adequate strengthening of the tools suitable for identifying, measuring and managing the related risks. In some cases shortcomings emerged in risk assessment and control methodologies, in pricing mechanisms, in the calculation of capital requirements. The letter recalls the obligations to which companies are required and the need to always ensure the correct application of the prudential rules in this regard".
