THE POSITION OF ANIA
The Italian tariffs for motor liability insurance are among the highest in Europe, but not due to an “allegedly low level of competition which would allow companies to pass on the higher costs incurred to consumers. This thesis has no foundation." This was stated by the president of ANIA, Aldo Minucci, at the association's annual meeting, responding to the criticisms made last week by Salvatore Rossi, president of IVASS (the insurance supervisory institute).
According to Minucci, behind the "difference" in prices compared to other European countries there are "structural causes", namely the high number of frauds and the different criteria for acknowledging personal injury. As for the trend in tariffs, the president of Ania underlines that "indisputable data" indicate an average drop of 6% between September 2012 and May 2013.
Furthermore, for Ania the investigation launched by the Antitrust towards eight companies to ascertain whether they prevent the development of the multi-mandate is not acceptable: "We do not share - said Minucci - the Authority's assumption as the clauses of the agency contracts under examination are fully in line with the intrinsic nature of the fiduciary relationship established between a company and its agents”.
IVASS'S REPLY AND THE REFORM REQUESTED BY THE ANTITRUST
During the same ANIA meeting, Salvatore Rossi explained that "IVASS and the competition and market authority have recently taken the initiative to jointly investigate the critical factors of the aspects of the current structure of the motor liability insurance market, looking for further interventions that can remove any impediments to competition, increase production efficiency and create the conditions for a structural reduction in policy prices”.
After an initial survey, Ivass and Agcm will start discussions with the insurance industry, intermediaries and consumers: “The results of the analysis and comparison will be promptly made public, hopefully within this year – concluded Rossi -. A first meeting of the joint group will take place already this week”.
In recent days, the president of the Antitrust, Giovanni Pitruzzella, had underlined the need for further liberalization in the field of insurance, and in particular of motor liability, to "strengthen efficiency and competition".
COMPARISON TABLE AT THE MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
At the Ministry of Economic Development "we are working to reform the motor liability system". This was announced by Senator Simona Vicari, Undersecretary for Economic Development. “I have activated a discussion table with all the interested categories – she added, in order to reach a shared and sustainable reform. The goal is to strengthen transparency, improve consumer protection mechanisms and above all guarantee certain and shorter times for compensation for damages”.
Furthermore, according to Vicari, “to these must be added interventions that allow the insurance sector to be further opened up to greater competition, from which positive effects can only derive. It's time to start modulating insurance rates, avoiding the current peaks between the North and South of Italy”.
THE CONSUMER ASSOCIATIONS
The data on motor liability rates released today by ANIA are "singular" for Codacons and clearly contradict the findings of IVASS and the Antitrust. "While for ANIA the prices of policies are magically decreasing - explains the association in a note - IVASS not only records double-digit increases for some categories of motorists, but even a worsening of the gap between northern and southern Italy . Even the Antitrust indicates that the average premium in Italy is more than double that paid in France and Portugal, and exceeds the German one by 80% and the Dutch one by 70%”.
Even if the drop in tariffs announced today by ANIA were true, "a drop that we don't see at all - underlines the president of Codacons, Carlo Rienzi -, it would be a drop in the bucket, compared to the motor liability increases registered in the last 20 years equal to +250%. ANIA must open its doors to consumers and show Codacons the data on tariff increases from 1994 to today, explaining once and for all why Italian motorists are the most harassed in the world on the insurance front”.
Adusbef and Federconsumatori denounce in a note that ANIA "continues to affirm that there would have been a drop in motor liability insurance rates, which, on the contrary, increased by 245% from 1994 to 2012, with the cost of the premium eating up 6,5 .5,8% of salary, double the OECD average and three times England's. If the prices of motor liability have started to fall again, explain the gentlemen of the policies associated with Ania, why the profits of the companies, despite the lower accident rate and the drop in compensation paid also due to the reduced circulation induced by the economic crisis, are amounted to 2012 billion in 262, with a per capita drain of XNUMX euros per family ".
