Muscat, Sept 3 - A new emergency insurance fund has been set up by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to help companies that are unable to provide insurance payments to their employees. The CMA released the fund guidelines on Tuesday. The fund will be managed by a committee set by CMA. The seed money of the fund will come from a fee of 0.25 per cent will be levied from life and family insurance policies. In addition, a one per cent fee will be placed on general insurance policies for this fund.
“A company that has failed to meet its obligations to the parties must provide the committee with the following: a statement of valid insurance policies, a statement of the value of claims for outstanding insurance policies, and a statement of the names of the parties whose insurance dues have not been paid in whole or in part.” Article 16 of the Emergency Insurance Fund guidelines also highlight the purposes for which money from the fund can be provided to companies. The CMA said, “Priority in granting assistance from the fund shall be in the following order: blood money claims and injuries to individuals, physical claims of individuals, claims of government agencies, claims of companies and institutions for insurance policies whose risks have not been reinsured outside the Sultanate, claims payable to agencies and vehicle repair workshops and claims for insurance policies reinsured outside the Sultanate after the fund has received compensation from reinsurers.”
In addition, the total amount of assistance provided for claims incurred by a single company shall not exceed 30 per cent of the money available to the fund, according to Article 17, while in case there is a deficiency of funds in more than one company, the total assistance provided by the fund shall not exceed 60 per cent of the fund’s available monies.
However, this limit can be crossed, according to Article 18, in the case of requests related to assistance over blood money and injuries over motor insurance policies. In this case, the fund will reimburse 100 per cent of the value for these requests.
The fund’s money can be invested through banking deposits, commercial and government bonds or any other bonds that have a fixed income. “The parties should submit their claims within two years and any others will not be accepted after the published deadline. Claims related to suited cases against the company are excluded with an assistance request to be submitted within four years.”, .
Article 20 states that the parties should not get any payment from the fund if they have already received a compensation from any other insurance company.
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