After many years of work initiated and driven internationally by OFESAUTO, the Council of Bureaux (the international body that regulates the format and structure of the “Green Card” document for the 48 member countries, Spain among them) approved at its last General Assembly the decision to allow this document to be generated in PDF format, so that it can be sent by email and printed in black and white, on a single side of A4 paper.
This is a further step towards the full international verification of the insurance of any vehicle, whatever its nationality, by digital rather than physical means. For the time being, in countries that are not part of the European Economic Area (the closest one to Spain is Morocco), paper will still be necessary in order to verify the compulsory insurance of any Spanish vehicle. But at least it will no longer be mandatory for that paper to be printed in green, nor for it to be printed by the insurance company – for example, policyholders will be able to print it themselves, much as happens with the boarding passes of many airlines.
In view of this possibility, OFESAUTO, as the body responsible for all the “Green Cards” issued in Spain, has decided that the time has come to have a common sector-wide web platform that will allow all insurers to request the generation of the “Green Card” document in PDF format, similar in structure and format, with the highest possible security standards (QR code, etc.), creating in turn a single register of all the “Green Cards” issued for Spanish vehicles. In this regard, OFESAUTO has been working for some time with TIREA on the development of the future web platform to be used for this purpose.
For this reason, the Board of OFESAUTO has agreed that all the “Green Cards” that insurance companies wish to issue from 1 April 2021 onwards must be requested through this platform.
This decision will bring significant cost savings, both financial and administrative, for all entities, since at present, when they decide to issue a “Green Card”, they have to physically print the document in a specific format and colour, send it by post, and so on.
Furthermore, from the point of view of handling claims occurring in those countries where the “Green Card” is required, and especially with regard to both foreign law enforcement authorities and victims, OFESAUTO will have a single centralised register to check in real time which entity has issued a given Green Card.
With this step, the Spanish insurance sector once again sets an example of cohesion and joint collaboration in the development of solutions that benefit not only all entities, but society as a whole and accident victims in particular.
Finally, OFESAUTO would like to remind you that issuing the Green Card is a voluntary decision of each entity. There is no obligation whatsoever for entities in this regard. This change will only affect those cases where the entity voluntarily and consciously decides to issue a Green Card.
For the time being (April 2020) nothing changes, and it will only be from 1 April of next year, 2021, that the use of this platform becomes mandatory. Over the coming months, OFESAUTO will keep all its member entities informed in detail about the technical arrangements and will clarify any questions in this regard.
OFESAUTO Press Release
