Parliament is putting its hands on motor liability insurance. The competition bill approved in recent days in the Chamber (and now being examined by the Senate) modifies some rules on policies for Italian motorists, the most harassed in Europe when it comes to insuring their vehicle.
The main innovations are three.
1) Discounts are available for those who have not caused an accident for at least four years despite living in one of the provinces with the highest rate of road accidents.
To give an idea of the ranking, we are publishing a table created by Ania – the national association of insurance companies – on the basis of data relating to 2015. The percentage expresses the frequency of claims out of the total number of insured vehicles and includes estimates of Ibnr (Incurred But Not Reported) accidents, i.e. those that occurred but were reported in subsequent years (for some cities the weight of these accidents is particularly high: in Naples they are on average 27%, in Genoa and Rome around 5%, while at national level the incidence is 10,1%).
2) New discounts arriving also for those who install the black box, the anti-fraud device that detects driving behaviour. Not only that: on this issue the new law also contains a delegation to the government, which within a year of the entry into force of the law will have to adopt a decree on theobligation to install the black box.
According to the latest ANIA data, since 2012 the diffusion of black boxes has increased by 300% and at the end of 2016 19% of contracts provided for the use of the device, compared to approximately 16% in the previous year. The diffusion of policies with the black box is much more decisive in the southern regions, with peaks of over 50% in the provinces of Naples and Caserta.
A correlation analysis developed by Ania shows that the accident frequency of vehicles with a black box is on average more than 20% lower than that of vehicles without it. The greatest potential benefits are recorded precisely in some notoriously riskier areas: in the provinces of Naples, Reggio Calabria and Caserta, for example, the reduction in frequency is between 30 and 35%.
3) For compensation for non-pecuniary damages from road accidents, the single table of the Court of Milan will be used.
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SILENT RENEWAL: DANGER NEARED
The new law reintroduces the institution of tacit renewal, i.e. the clause that provides for the automatic renewal of the contract that has expired in the absence of an explicit cancellation. The novelty concerns the policies of the non-life branch, which also include the automotive sector, but not motor liability insurance, expressly excluded from the tacit renewal with a prohibition that the Legislative Decree also extends to non-compulsory coverage.
THE CRITICISM OF ACTUARIES
Several criticisms have been leveled against these measures. Among the best documented, those of the National Order of Actuaries, a professional category that determines motor liability rates in insurance companies on the basis of a scientific procedure.
Read Motor liability, the actuaries: "Competition bill won't bring prices down"
