At its meeting on June 21st, 2016, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority unanimously adopted the „Recommendations for insurance companies on the process of determining and paying compensation for a non-property damage under the MTPL insurance agreement”.
The Recommendations meet the need to ensure predictability in the process of determination and payment of compensation for non-property damage. The relevant law provisions do not provide for any criteria that should be followed when determining the amount of compensation, and insurance companies do not present a unified approach to the catalog of circumstances that should be taken into account when assessing the non-property damage, as well as to the evaluation of these circumstances, which in turn leads to unjustified discrepancies in the amounts of compensation awarded in similar cases. There are also large disparities between compensation amounts paid by insurance companies and the amounts of compensation awarded by the courts of law. There is therefore, according to the KNF, a need to develop uniform standards in the determination and payment of compensation for non-property damage. Recommendations are also a response to the need to increase the transparency of the process of determining and paying compensation for non-property damage.
Recommendations are divided into the following areas:
- organization, management, supervision and control over the process of determining and paying compensation;
- the manner of conduct of proceedings in determining and payment of compensation;
- method of determining the amount of compensation.
In the respect of the method of determining the amount of compensation the recommendations take into account the case law of the Supreme Court and case law of common courts.
Recommendations are addressed to the Polish insurance companies. With respect to the conduct of proceedings in determining and payment of compensation and the method of determining the amount of compensation, the recommendations should also be applied by foreign insurance companies carrying MTPL insurance activity on the territory of the Poland.
The KNF expects that insurance companies shall comply with the recommendations until 31 December 2016. Or, pursuant to Art. 365 par. 5 of the Act of 11 September 2015 on insurance and reinsurance activity, inform the KNF, how they intend to achieve the objectives set forth thereunder.
The Recommendations is available at:
