The dynamic risk certificate streamlines and simplifies the management of the renewal or stipulation of a new RCA, and acts as an effective deterrent against certain types of fraud against insurance companies.
When taking out a third party liability policy for your car, the company will validate a document showing the claims that have been reported over a period of time that covers the five years preceding the stipulation. This document is called Certificate of Risk , and also certifies the class to which it belongs as well as the Bonus-Malus conditions that the driver has accrued over the years of driving license.
Historically present in paper form, the risk certificate has been converted into a digital document starting from July 1st 2005. This small revolution in the insurance field benefits customers and companies, who no longer have to physically request the document to the contractor or his old company, but they can obtain it electronically directly from a centralized database.
The certificate is in fact present in a database edited by the National Association of Insurance Companies (abbreviated name in the acronym ANIA), which reports directly to the Insurance Supervisory Institute (IVASS).
Therefore, in the event that the policyholder decides to contact another company, this will download the risk certificate directly from the central database of ANIA, without having to request it from the insured or the company with which he was previously insured.
In addition to a first, evident advantage that becomes more rapid in the exchange of data, with consequent streamlining of bureaucratic procedures, the digitization and centralization of risk certificates brings with it a further and much more significant benefit to protect companies and second measure, of the contractors.
In fact, at the time of the paper certificates, a behavior that was configured in all respects as a scam against companies had become widespread practice among less honest motorists.
Basically, it happened that following an accident with fault, the most savvy (and dishonest) motorists changed insurance company even before having their certificate updated to the latest accident. That is, even before the accident was reported to the company and transmitted by it to the driver’s certificate. Often the accident was not even reported or reported late, giving the contractor time to change company, bringing with him a “clean” certificate net of the last harmful event. The result was thus to benefit from a certainly better class of merit, because it was not aggravated by yet another accident.
Dynamic risk certificate: the definitive stop to the crafty ones
The new version of the document , as it is digital and free from the constraints that the paper necessarily carries with it, is updated immediately, even in the periods in which the expiry of the policy is imminent or in cases in which the insured has decided to change insurance.
The advantage in this sense goes to positively invest both the companies and all those virtuous motorists, thanks to a more streamlined and efficient management of claims and classes of merit by the companies.
In fact, thanks to the digitalization of the certificate, incidents registered during the expiry of the policy or immediately after the expiry of the same will be reported immediately. The possibility of cunning behavior in this sense is effectively eliminated, thus avoiding the risk of fraud against the insurance company.
In fact, with the paper version, the claims that were reported immediately after the change of company were not immediately recorded in the risk certificate, in this way the motorist could keep the old class of merit, not aggravated by the latest accidents.
Let’s take a practical example, which will help you better understand the typical situation just mentioned, that is the typical one of a late claim.
The late claim is an accident reported with a certain delay since the same occurred, with times that can reach up to a year. In this way, less honest motorists had the opportunity to change company, effectively preventing the registration of the accident on the risk certificate, thus enjoying bonuses instead of malus. In this way, in addition to the companies, it was inevitably the most honest motorists who paid the price.
With the digital version of the certificate, any behavior of this type is effectively nullified by the possibility of updating the document even in the event of a change of company by the insured. Here too, a practical example will help to understand the dynamics that could be configured.
In the event of an accident reported late, the old company of the driver pays for the accident, and then communicates the accident to the new company. The new company will immediately update the certificate in order to apply the malus to the policyholder upon expiry of the contract. The malus, in this case, will apply in cases where the motorist’s liability exceeds 51% or in the case of sole liability.
Furthermore, a further improvement of the digital system consists in the fact that, starting from January 1st of this year, the companies can take into account the claims occurred in the last ten years, a limit previously set at five years.
Furthermore, again from January 1, 2019, accidents registered with temporary policies are also taken into consideration. These contracts, we remind you, are useful if you use your car in a certain period of the year, or in any case in a very specific period of time, allowing you to save even considerable savings on the RCA of your car.
