Wierzbowski Eversheds has advised the Polish Insurance Guarantee Fund (UFG) on a multilateral agreement on gathering and providing access to information in the Polish insurance industry, and has represented UFG in negotiations with dozens of insurance companies.
According to the firm, the purpose of the agreement, which has been joined by 24 insurers -- representing over 90% of the automobile insurance market in Poland -- is to assure the highest quality of data processing in the Polish database of automobile insurers by: (1) Imposing more rigorous requirements on insurers with respect to the data they provide; (2) Introducing instruments to discipline insurers that do not meet the required conditions; and (3) Modifying the mechanisms for supply of data by insurers and access to the data.
Wierzbowski Eversheds Partner Gerard Karp, the Head of the firm’s Privacy, Information, & Communication Technologies and Electronic Communications teams, was involved in the work on the agreement for UFG. “This project was particularly complex, primarily because of the participation of dozens of insurance companies with whom it was necessary to agree the final wording of the document, reflecting the interests of all of the parties,” said Karp. “Ultimately a compromise was achieved that was satisfactory for the insurance market and for the Insurance Guarantee Fund. One of the key issues was to guarantee the security of the personal data of insureds. These issues play an increasingly important role in the Polish legal system, particularly as a result of the rapid changes in IT and the opinions and recommendations issued in this field by EU authorities.”
According to Slawa Cwalinska-Weychert, Vice President of the Insurance Guarantee Fund, “It has been nearly three years since the prior agreement governing insurers’ use of UFG’s database was signed. We analyzed the database itself, as well as the way it is used by insurance companies, and tried to reflect these conclusions in the new agreement. We hope that this will allow us to eliminate problems with the evaluation of customer risks, and thus allow customers to avoid the requirement to present certificates showing their insurance history.”
