The construction site for theInsurance Arbitrator travel to the finish line. The new instrument will make it possible to resolve insurance disputes without going to court and will join two other bodies of the same type (theBanking arbitrator and that for financial disputes), with which collaboration protocols will be envisaged.
There is no official departure date yet, but the Insurance Arbitrator should see the light by the end of the year. There are three institutional steps to be completed: once the consultation phase on the interministerial regulation, currently underway, is completed, the decree will arrive, after which we will move on to the consultation on the IVASS regulation.
By now, however, the main difficulties have been overcome, starting with the definition of the scope of the new instrument. Of the three arbitrators, the insurance one will be the only one who will have the right to decide on compensation through judgments of equity. But be careful: it will only be able to do so for disputes in which the compensation requested does not exceed 1.100 euros, a limit that will be raised to 2.500 euros from 2025.
The main advantage for consumers and businesses will concern the times, much shorter than those of the judicial authority. Normally, the procedure will not last more than six months: 90 days for the preliminary investigation plus 90 for the decision (an extension of another three months is possible only for particularly complex cases). The mass of cases pending in the prosecutors will thus be lightened, which on the insurance side alone exceed 200. The majority, as always, concern policies Rc car.
The Insurance Arbitrator “aims to improve the relationship of trust between companies, intermediaries and policyholders – he explains Stefano De Polis, number one of IVASS – offering the possibility of quickly and economically settling the so-called small claim, small complaints, in a sector in which there is physiologically a component of dialectic between the company and the policyholders”.
Given the high number of operators in the insurance market, the accession of the companies to the Arbitrator will take place automatically with registration in the Register of Companies, in the Single Register of Intermediaries (RUI) or in the related lists, "without the need for further communications to IVASS", continues De Polis, underlining that the new body "will be independent, impartial and organized in boarding schools. Two peculiarities of the insurance Arbitrator will be the diversified limits of competence by value and the possibility of a judgment of fairness”.
To meet the new commitment, IVASS has already hired 45 people, but given the amount of appeals that the Insurance Arbitrator will have to manage – predictably very large – it is possible that a further expansion of staff will be necessary in the future. Also for this reason, the Institute has repeatedly asked the government to remove the limits to the staffing plan envisaged by the law establishing the Authority, which currently prevent new hires.
