Newsletter
MOF ANNOUNCES EXCEPTIONS TO ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE LAW
On 1 April 2002, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced exceptions to the Electronic Signature Law's application with regard to the Insurance Law and the Compulsory Automobile Liability Insur-ance Law. The actions indicated by underlining in the tables below may not be performed by elec-tronic means.
Insurance Law:
| Article (Paragraph, Item) | Text |
| Article 34 | On receiving all supporting documents from the applicant or insured, the insurer shall pay the benefit within the agreed time period. If no time pe-riod is agreed, payment shall be made within 15 days after receipt of notice. |
| Article 64 | Paragraph 3 The right to rescind the contract as referred to in the preceding paragraph shall lapse if not exercised within one month after the insurer becomes aware of grounds for rescission; and after a period of two years following the making of the contract, the contract shall not be rescinded even where grounds for rescission exist. |
| Article 82 | Paragraph 3 When the insurer intends to terminate the contract, it shall give 15 days' prior notice to the policyholder. |
| Article 105 | A death benefit insurance contract concluded by a third party shall be void except with the written consent of the insured to the contract and to the insured amount.Consent given by an insured in accordance with the provisions of the pre-ceding paragraph may be withdrawn at any time. Such withdrawal shall be made by giving written notice to the insurer and to the applicant.Where an insured exercises the right to withdraw consent in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the contract shall be deemed to have been terminated by the applicant. |
| Article 106 | Where a life insurance contract is concluded by a third party, any transfer or pledge of rights thereunder shall not be effective without the written acknowledgment of the insured. |
| Article 111 | After a beneficiary is designated, the applicant may still dispose of his/her insurable interest by contract or will, unless he/she has declared his/her waiver of such right of disposal.Where an applicant exercises his right of disposal as referred to in the preceding paragraph, this shall not be enforceable against the insurer unless notice has been given. |
| Article 116 | Paragraphs 1, 2, and 4 Unless otherwise agreed, where a life insurance premium has not been paid by the due date, and remains unpaid 30 days after delivery of a demand notice, the validity of the insurance contract shall be suspended.The demand notice shall be delivered to the last known domicile or resi-dence of the applicant or of the person liable for payment of the insurance premium. After a demand notice has been issued, payment shall be made at the business premises of the insurer.On expiry of the time period indicated in Paragraph 1 above, the insurer has the right to terminate the contract. |
| Article 119 | Paragraph 1 Where an applicant terminates an insurance contract and the insurance premium is fully paid for one year or more, the insurer shall within one month after receiving notice pay out the surrender value of the policy; the amount shall not be not less than three-quarters of the policy value reserve to which the applicant is entitled. |
| Article 130 | (Applies Article 105, mutatis mutandis.) |
| Article 135 | (Applies Article 105, mutatis mutandis.) |
| Article 135-4 | The provisions of Articles 103, 104, 106, and 114 to 124, shall apply mu-tatis mutandis to annuity insurance. But during the period of payment of the annuity, the applicant shall not terminate the contract or use the insur-ance contract as collateral for a loan from the insurer. |
Compulsory Automobile Liability Insurance Law:
| Article (Paragraph, Item) | Text |
| Article 18 | After a contract for the insurance is entered into, the insurer shall issue a certificate of insurance and an insurance contract to the insured. Where any change occurs to information required on the certificate of insurance, the insured shall notify the insurer to modify it. |
| Article 19 Paragraph 3 | Before terminating the insurance contract in accordance with the provi-sions of the preceding paragraph, the insurer shall give written notice to the insured to correct the information or make payment within ten days after receipt. If the insured does so before receiving notice of termination of the contract, the insurer shall not terminate the contract. |
| Article 22, latter part | The same applies to any notice, or consent to alter the insurance contract, given by the insurer to the insured or beneficiary. |
| Article 28 | If an insured vehicle is involved in an automobile traffic accident, a bene-ficiary may claim payment of benefit directly from the insurer within the limit of liability provided for by this Law. |
| Article 33 | If death occurs as a result of an automobile traffic accident, a beneficiary may, on providing documentary evidence, claim a provisional payment from the insurer of up to half the limit of liability provided for by this Law. The insurer shall make such payment immediately.If assessment of an automobile traffic accident as referred to in the pre-ceding paragraph shows that a provisional payment made by the insurer exceeds the benefit payable by the insurer, the insurer may claim repay-ment of the excess amount from the beneficiary. |
| Article 38 Paragraph 1 | After an automobile traffic accident, if an injured party or his/her heirs are unable to claim payment of benefit from an insurer in accordance with the provisions of this Law for any of the reasons enumerated below, such a person may claim compensation from the special compensation fund up to an amount equivalent to the limit of insurance benefit provided for by this Law: |
| Article 39 Paragraphs 2 and 3 | The special compensation fund may seek repayment of compensation paid out directly from the injuring party or vehicle owner, up to the amount of the compensation paid.Prior to receiving repayment in full from the injuring party or vehicle owner of the compensation paid out, the special compensation fund may notify the highways authority to suspend the vehicle license or driving li-cense of the injuring party or vehicle owner, and suspend the processing of change of vehicle ownership applications. |
| Article 42 | The insurer shall establish a separate accounting system to record the op-erational and financial status of its compulsory automobile liability insur-ance business, and shall report information on such insurance business to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transportation and Commu-nications. |
| Article 45 | The highways supervisory authority, when conducting roadside inspec-tions, and the traffic police authorities, when conducting traffic duties, may report persons found not to have taken out the insurance in accordance with the relevant provisions. On receiving written notice of a violation concerning the insurance, the vehicle owner shall within 15 days attend the designated location to await adjudication. If the vehicle owner does not attend within the period, adju-dication may be made directly. But if the offender does not dispute the alleged facts, he may close the case without adjudication by making pay-ment of the minimum fine for the offence(s) in question at the designated place.The procedure, and payment receiving institutions, for fine payments in accordance with the preceding paragraph shall be designated by the Min-istry of Transportation and Communications in consultation with the Ministry of Finance. |