"For Cattolica the customer has always been at the centre; this is not simply a slogan. We are looking forward to big steps and important challenges, but the path we have taken has already been significant.” The manager of the Legal and Corporate Affairs Department of the Cattolica Group introduced the Cattolica Lecture Day, which was held on Friday, June 28th in the Bisoffi auditorium in Via Calatafimi. An in-depth look at the latest innovations in the field of sanctions in the insurance sector, with speakers Antonio De Pascalis, Central Director of Ivass, Umberto Guidoni, Director of ANIA and Secretary General of the ANIA Foundation, and Maurizio Hazan, lawyer, all at the table.

"With the reform, the sanction has become an extreme ratio thanks to the introduction of a whole series of alternative instruments. Our system should not be considered as being afflictive," said De Pascalis. "Was this reform really necessary? Personally, I do not understand the need for it in this particular historical phase," said Guidoni, recalling the overall decline in the number of sanctions issued by the Authority over the last ten years. What worries insurance companies is primarily the size of the amounts provided for by the new sanctions with the introduction of the criterion of the percentage of turnover for the calculation of the sanction: "These amounts, much higher than in the past, risk questioning the very life of businesses," said Guidoni.

A reform dictated on an European level, as noted by the third speaker of the day, the lawyer Maurizio Hazan: "It is the same IDD that calls for a strengthening of the sanctions”, he explained. It was not an option, but a choice. The new approach to sanctions must have 'educational' purposes in relation to the protection of the market and the consumer. The rationale of the contract has also been revolutionised, introducing a much more dynamic relationship between the insurer and the users. Today, the question of the social role of the insurer is being posed in a decisive manner, a social vocation that requires absolute respect for the rules, also in the light of the correlative responsibilities that are not limited to the sanctioning aspects but also to the civil aspects".