Amendments to OSAGO regulations have been drafted

The Bank of Russia has drafted amendments to the rules on compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (OSAGO) and to the procedure for electronic exchange of information related to OSAGO.

The OSAGO rules stipulate that a European Accident Statement may be received via the Public Services Portal when a road accident notice sent to an insurer is signed by persons involved in an accident in electronic form. Files are automatically sent by the software, beyond drivers’ responsibility.

The draft amendments set forth the procedure for verifying information in an application for an electronic OSAGO contract in the authorities’ databases. An insurer will only be allowed to request scanned copies of documents if it has no opportunity to verify submitted information with the authorities.

If data provided by an insurant differs from information in the state data systems, an insurer is entitled to suspend the electronic insurance policy issue. That will promote a decrease in potential fraudulent activity. In addition, an insurer will be able to complete all required verifications within 20 minutes, just as according to the currently effective procedure. If the authorities do not respond in 20 minutes (e.g. due to a technical failure), an OSAGO contract should be concluded.

It is planned to cancel the requirement to draw up a road accident notice for drivers who must record a road accident engaging traffic officers due to accident circumstances (e.g. in case of victims in an accident). All information in such case is to be recorded by traffic officers.

The OSAGO policy form will also be amended: namely, it will not be required to specify series therein. It will be allowed to conclude OSAGO contracts based on old policies until 1 February 2020.

All relevant amendments to the regulations will become effective simultaneously with the amendments to the law on OSAGO, i.e. on 29 October 2019.