After many years of work in which OFESAUTO has been actively involved, the Council of Bureaux – the international body which manages the format and structure of the International Motor Insurance Certificate (aka “Green Card”) for the 48 countries included – approved, during its last General Assembly, the decision to allow said document to be generated in PDF format and thus be emailed and printed on a single side of A4 paper in black and white.
This is yet another step towards our final aim: the ability to check the MTPL cover of any foreign vehicle, regardless of its nationality, through digital and non-physical means. For now in countries that are not part of the European Economic Area (the closest to Spain is Morocco), the “printed paper” will continue to be necessary for checking the validity of the MTPL cover of any foreign vehicle but at least it will no longer be mandatory that the paper used to print it has to be green nor does it have to be printed by the insurance company. For example, it can be printed at home by the insured person themselves, such as is the case of boarding passes issued by many airlines these days.
Bearing that in mind OFESAUTO as the responsible body for all “Green Cards” issued in Spain, has decided that it is time to have a common sectoral web platform that will allow all Spanish insurers to generate the “Green Card” document in pdf, all of them similar in format and structure, with the highest possible security standards (QR code, etc.). At the same time this platform will create a central data base with all “Green Cards” that are issued for Spanish vehicles. In this sense OFESAUTO has been working for a long time with TIREA on the development of this future web platform.
For this reason, the Board of OFESAUTO has approved that from 1st April 2021, insurance companies wishing to issue a “Green Card”, must request it through the new platform.
This decision will mean significant cost savings both financial and administrative for all entities, as currently when they decide to issue a “Green Card” they have to physically print the document in a certain format and color, send it by post mail, etc.
What’s more from the point of view of the management of claims occurred in those countries where the “Green Card” is necessary, and especially concerning non-EEA cross-border authorities and victims, OFESAUTO will have a centralized Data Base to check in real time which entity has issued a specific Green Card.
With this project the Spanish insurance sector once again acts as an example of cohesion and common collaboration in the development of solutions that benefit not only all entities, but society as a whole and accident victims in particular.
Finally, from OFESAUTO we wish to remind you that the issuance of the Green Card is a voluntary decision of each entity and there is no obligation for the entities to do so in this regard. This change will only affect those cases where the entity voluntarily and consciously decides that it will issue a Green Card.
For now – April 2020- nothing has changed and this document only serves as notice that as from April 1st of next year (2021) the use of the new platform will be mandatory. During the coming months OFESAUTO will inform all its members regarding the IT technical details and needs, and will clarify all doubts in this regard.
OFESAUTO Press Note
