Legislation

The tasks of the Swiss National Bureau of Insurance (NBI) are governed by different legal, regulatory and contractual provisions.

The main provisions concerning the organisation, the tasks and the funding of the NBI are contained in art. 74 ff. of the Road Traffic Law (SVG) and art. 39 ff. of the Legal Ordinance on Vehicle Insurance (VVV). The legal tasks of the NBI consist in covering road traffic accidents caused by foreign vehicles, in operating the National Information Centre and in coordinating the conclusion of frontier insurance policies (art. 74 par. 2 SVG).

The relations between the NBI and the national insurance bureaux of the Council of Bureaux (CoB) , which constitute the “green card” system, are ruled by the Internal Regulations and the Multilateral Agreement (also called “Plate Agreement”). These provisions settle the details concerning the cover and the claims handling in the relations between the 45 CoB members for accidents occuring on the territories for which they are in charge of.

Based on the competence given by art. 76b par. 4 lit. a SVG, the NBI concluded so called “visitors protection” agreements with the competent insurance associations of all EEA member states and Croatia. These agreements strengthen the position of road traffic accident victims that met with an accident abroad, allowing them to address their claim to a representative of the foreign insurer in their country of residence. These private agreements brought the benefits of the main european provisions on the protection of road traffic victims to swiss claimants despite the fact that Switzerland is not a member of the EU/EEA. If no such agreement had been concluded, the swiss victims of road traffic accidents abroad would have had no other choice than to address their claim to the liable driver and its insurer abroad.