CIDE and ASCIDE agreements - La Web de Seguros

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CIDE and ASCIDE Agreements: Introduction

It is estimated that there are currently more than 28 million insured vehicles in Spain. As a result, the number of claims reported every day is very high.

The procedures necessary to resolve these claims have always generated a significant management and coordination burden, which caused delays and inconvenience to the injured parties, due to the difficulties of the process. This, in turn, damaged the image of the insurance companies.

In order to largely solve this situation in property damage claims, the insurers introduced the CIDE (Direct Indemnity Agreement) in 1988, which was supplemented in 1990 by the ASCIDE (Supplementary Agreement to the Direct Indemnity Agreement). Later, in 2002, the claims handling system SDM was created, which is not an agreement as such, but a computer system with an articulated regulation for claims not covered by the previous ones.

The main objective of the CIDE and ASCIDE agreements is for insurers to manage claims efficiently and with a greater response capacity, to the benefit of the client.

The most relevant feature of these agreements is that the insurer of the injured party is responsible for assessing and compensating the damages. Subsequently, the at-fault insurer pays the other insurer a "compensation module", a fixed annual amount that represents an average of the cost of the claims. It does not matter whether the damage is €50 or €5,000, the module is the same. The insurers keep track and make compensations. If one owes 60 modules and the other 40, the difference is paid: 20 modules.

Currently, it is estimated that about 70 % of property damage claims are settled through such settlements.

CICOS (Computerised Claims Clearing House)

CICOS is an IT tool designed to facilitate claims management in the insurance sector.

To process claims under the CIDE and ASCIDE agreements, in 1994 TIREA (Tecnologías de la Información y Redes para las Entidades Aseguradoras) implemented the CICOS system. This system provides technology to streamline management, improve efficiency and coordinate compensation between entities, all of which is regulated by an Articulated Regulation.

Communications between insurers are done through standardised message codes, using an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system.

CIDE Agreement

The CIDE convention applies in certain cases, which are clearly established to ensure its correct use.

This agreement covers claims involving a direct collision between two vehicles, regardless of their type or use. In order to be applicable, both insurers must be members of the agreement and the Friendly Declaration of Accident (D.A.A.) must have been correctly signed.

ASCIDE Agreement

The ASCIDE agreement complements the CIDE and applies in cases that fall outside the scope of the former, especially when the Friendly Declaration has not been completed or is invalid due to a missing requirement.