Insurer ASR said on Wednesday an agreement concluded with consumer organizations about the reimbursement of extortionate policies. ASR is allocating approximately 250 million euros for the agreement with the Consumers’ Association, ConsumerClaim, Wakkerpolis, Stichting Woekerpolisproces and Vereniging Woekerpolis.nl, which was reached after ten years of litigation. In addition, the insurer is setting aside another 50 million euros for distressing cases and for customers who are not affiliated with the organizations and who have not previously received compensation.
The scheme will be further developed in the coming months. According to the Consumers’ Association the compensation per policyholder vary from a minimum of several hundred euros to in some cases tens of thousands of euros or more. In return, the consumer organizations will stop all collective claim procedures against ASR. The scheme concerns almost 300 different investment insurance policies that have been sold over the years by ASR and Aegon. According to ASR CEO Jos Baeten, this amounts to around 140,000 policies.
Also read
Usury policy affair shook the insurance sector
“This is an extremely important step and a victory for consumers,” says director Sandra Molenaar of the Consumers’ Association. “We also call on the remaining insurers to follow this example, then we can finally close this book.”
Long-running case
The extortionate policy affair has been keeping the financial world busy since 2006. It then came to light that since the 1990s, many investment insurance policies had been charged far too high costs. Claims organizations have since been trying to obtain compensation for victims from insurers.
ASR and Aegon previously also offered compensation for customers, but now the matter can be resolved as far as ASR CEO Jos Baeten is concerned. really be closed. “With the final agreement we have reached, we can complete this file and provide clarity to customers.”