On 1 January 2015 an amendment to the Personal Data Protection Act of 29 August 1997 (the 2014 Journal of Laws, item 1182) came into force.
The amendment expands the powers of the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection (IGPDP) in relation to maintaining a register of data bases and a register of information security administrators (ISA); the IGPDP may also request a registered ISA to inspect data stored by the data administrator who appointed the ISA, and also request the drafting of an inspection report.
The Road Traffic Act of 24 July 2015 (2015 Journal of Laws, item 1273).
The Act enables insurance companies to access the Central Register of Vehicles and the Central Register of Drivers for the purposes of uploading data on third party liability motor policies and material claims and provides a three-year adjustment period.
The Act shall enter into force on 1 January 2017.
The Act of 5 August 2015 on the Handling of Complaints by Financial Market Organisations and on the Financial Ombudsman (2015 Journal of Laws, item 1348).
The Act introduced the regulatory framework for complaints handling processes used by, among others, insurance companies. The Insurance Ombudsman was replaced by the Financial Ombudsman. As from 1 January 2016, a dispute between a customer and a financial market organisation can be resolved in extra-judicial proceedings conducted by the Financial Ombudsman.
The act entered into force on 11 October 2015.
The Insurance and Reinsurance Activity Act of 11 September 2015 (2015 Journal of Laws, item 1844).
The Act entered into force on 1 January 2016. The Act implements Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance (Solvency II), Directive 2014/51/EU Omnibus II and EC Regulation No b10160/2009, (EU) No 1094/2010 and (EU) No 1095/2010.
Moreover, the new law imposes on insurance companies an extensive array of new disclosure obligations vis-a-vis policyholders and the insured named in life insurance policies with an investment element. The act obliges insurers to conduct a survey of needs, knowledge, experience and the financial situation of the prospective insured to be named in class 3 life insurance policies.
The basic scope of tasks entrusted to PIA was extended by the addition of the obligation to establish a settlement system and perform settlements between insurance companies that perform insurance activities upon instruction of another insurance company, as well as the obligation to collect, process and provide information on the settlements between participants in this system (Settlement Centre).
The supervisory authority was empowered to issue recommendations for insurance and reinsurance companies. The supervisory authority is obliged to consult draft recommendations with interested stakeholders and to assess the expected social and economic consequences (costs and benefits) of regulations. The new law introduced the rule of balanced temporal allocation of expenses incurred for insurance intermediaries in any unit-linked Life insurance contracts in which the amounts of benefits are based on certain indices or other base values. The above rule will not apply to unit-linked Life insurance contracts in which the insurance element prevails over the savings element.
A ban has been introduced with regard to insurance for a third party’s account, in particular group insurance, the policyholder will not be entitled to any remuneration and other benefits for offering insurance cover or carrying out work connected with the performance of an insurance contract. This ban does not apply to group insurance contracts concluded for the account of employees or contractors employed under civil-law contracts and their family members, as well as to the contracts made for the benefit of members of associations, professional organisations or labour unions.
Insurance companies obtained the right to request the National Health Fund to provide them with names and addresses of entities that have provided with healthcare services in relation to an accident or event which was the basis for determining an insurance company’s liability and the amount of compensation or benefit. The Act amended many other acts, including the Act on compulsory insurance, the Insurance Guarantee Fund and the Polish Motor Insurers’ Bureau of 22 May 2003 (Journal of Laws 2013, item 392 as amended (the “Compulsory Insurance Act”), for example by:
- imposing on the Insurance Guarantee Fund the obligation to create and maintain an IT database insofar as required for the identification, verification and prevention of violation of the interests of insurance market participants, which should include in particular the information on claims and benefits paid out under the insurance agreements as referred to in Sections I and II of the Appendix to the Insurance Activity Act).
- imposing on insurance companies the obligation to notify a beneficiary under an insurance contract, as referred in article 4 (1) or (2) of the Act, that the sum insured may
be exhausted if the total amount of compensation or other benefits paid out exceeds, prior to the Act’s entry into force, 80% of the sum insured set forth in the insurance contract.
The Act on the implementation of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of the United States of America to Improve International Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA (2015 Journal of Laws, item 1712) entered into force on 10 November 2015.
The Act obliges financial institutions, including insurance companies, to identify and report US taxpayers’ customer accounts data, effective from 1 December 2015.
The Act of 16 December 2015 Amending the Water Law Act (2015 Journal of Laws, item 2295).
Under the amended Act, local governments are no longer required to take account of the information contained in the flood hazard maps and flood risk maps in administrative decisions concerning spatial planning and individual building permits.
The act entered into force on 31 December 2015.
