A2ii Newsflash| Costa Rica Approves Inclusive Insurance Regulations

On 24 August 2020, the National Council for the Supervision of the Financial System (CONASSIF) approved the Superintendencia General de Seguros (SUGESE) "Regulations for Inclusion and Access to Insurance’.

The purpose of this legislation is to promote inclusion and access to insurance whilst at the same time ensuring an appropriate  level of protection for consumers. The legislation does this by defining principles, requirements and other regulatory conditions applicable to autoexpedible insurance.   

The Regulations describe the autoexpedible insurance as: 

‘…a type of insurance for which no expert advice is required from the distribution channel due to the simplicity of its contractual terms and ease of understanding by the consumer, and is registered as such in the SUGESE Product Registration’.

In addition, it has the following features:

• it only covers interests and risks common to the majority of individuals,
• can be standardised and commercialised and sold to a mass audience, and
• is not subject to risk analysis and selection processes before it is issued.

Policies of this type can be issued for individuals or groups and can be obtained by natural or legal persons, in the latter case to cover risks and interests that also apply to the majority of natural persons. They can be distributed directly by insurers, insurance brokerage companies, insurance agency companies, insurance agents and autoexpedible insurance operators. 

The autoexpedible insurance policies are sold under three modalities: i) “inclusive insurance,” which refers to insurance products offered to excluded or underserved sectors of the market regardless of their level of economic income, ii) “microinsurance,” understood as insurance directed to low-income sectors of the population, and iii) “mass insurance,” understood as insurance that can be commercialised to mass markets.’ 

These Regulations come as a result of SUGESE’s efforts towards its strategic objective of improved education and greater financial inclusion.  In the framework of the project ‘Inclusion and access to insurance for identified target populations’, SUGESE carried out a diagnostic study based on the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) methodology. Through the diagnostic, the regulatory entity explored:

• the demand for insurance from the two segments identified as neglected,
• relevant information about the target populations,
• existing availability of this type of insurance, its target segments and prospective interest and perceptions of the providers about the regulatory and market conditions,
• best global practices, and
• local regulations to identify opportunities for improvement.

The recent approval of the “Regulation on Inclusion and Access to Insurance” establishes a new milestone in the construction of a more developed, inclusive market that is attached to best practices, stated Tomás Soley Pérez, the Superintendent of SUGESE.  
 

 

Following the approval of the Regulations, on 23 September, the SUGESE held a virtual dialogue on the role of insurance in sustainability and inclusion. The panellists were Regina Simões, A2ii, Alejandra Díaz Agudelo, MICRO – Colombia, Germán Rodriguez, SUGESE and Tomás Soley Pérez of SUGESE.