On 9 May 2017, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) published its position on the placing by insurance companies on their websites of the general terms and conditions of insurance and other standard contracts, pursuant to Art. 15 item 4 of the Act of 11 September 2015 on insurance and reinsurance activity. According to this provision, as of 1 January 2016, insurance companies are obliged to place on their website the GTCIs and other standard contracts.
As pointed out by the KNF, the purpose of this regulation is to provide policyholders, insureds, beneficiaries and persons authorized under insurance contracts with access to the GTCIs and standard contracts. This access should be enabled both before and during the contract period. The longer the contract term, the higher the probability that the policyholder or the insured will seek access to these documents. Also, access to the above documents may be of interest to persons who are not entitled to be provided therewith by insurance companies. This applies in particular to beneficiaries under life insurance contracts and claimants making claims under the insurance contract.
The supervisory authority has analyzed the implementation of the aforementioned obligation by the insurance companies operating in the Polish market, and stated the differences in the practice of placing the documents on the websites by insurance companies. Some insurance companies place the required documents „without delay”, i.e. no later than at the date of their entry into force, others do so with a delay of even several days from the date of introduction of the offered product or from the date of adopting the resolution by the board of the insurance company on accepting the standard contract.
The KNF, aiming at unifying market practice in this respect, states that the function of the provision in question is the need to place documents, from the day the insurance product is launched, in a location easily accessible to the average user of the website. In addition, according to the regulator, these documents „should be constantly posted on the website”. Such practice will provide all interested parties with access to documents for an indefinite period, which will affect the transparency of the insurance offers of all insurers and allow comparison of offers.
At the same time the regulator reminded that, due to the introduction of a statutory obligation to place documents on websites, insurance companies are no longer obliged to send the GTC and other standard contracts to the KNF office.
