Page 23 - Turkinsurance Digital Magazine

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for the promotion, implementation, and management of Com- first, we launched the advance payment system on February 27,
pulsory Earthquake Insurance and for creating an earthquake 2023, to provide financial support to policyholders from the
insurance pool for the country, has reached approximately 12 very beginning—covering the period from claim notification to
million policies across Türkiye over the 25 years since its es- the completion of damage assessment. Under this practice, we
tablishment. paid 20% of the insured amount as an advance for buildings
classified as collapsed, in urgent need of demolition, or severe-
What is the current status of the efforts to include non- ly damaged, and 10% for buildings classified as moderately
earthquake coverages in DASK? Could you share information damaged. Additionally, we introduced a new practice for lightly
about when the new coverages will be implemented? damaged residences, which made up the majority of the claims
submitted to us. Indeed, processing lightly damaged claims—
As DASK, we currently provide financial protection to insured which made up the majority of the damage files submitted to
homeowners against earthquakes and damages resulting from us—through manual assessments would have resulted in a pro-
earthquakes through Compulsory Earthquake Insurance. In cess spanning several years. To address this, we paid 15% of
light of the increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters the insured amount directly to policyholders without applying
witnessed in recent years, we have taken a major transforma- any deductible. Policyholders who received 15% of the insured
tion step within DASK, aware of the responsibility we bear as sum were also given the option to request a reassessment by
an institution. We are nearing the final stages of our efforts to having an adjuster visit their residence, should they wish to do
expand DASK’s coverage to include all types of natural disas- so. Another matter was the payments for policyholders whose
ters—especially floods. We have completed most of our work homes were under mortgage. For mortgaged properties, a co-
on transforming Compulsory Earthquake Insurance into Com- operation was established with the Banks Association of Türki-
pulsory Disaster Insurance and are now awaiting the enactment ye to eliminate the need for individual consent forms, enabling
of the legislation. In this way, we will provide coverage for all batch processing. As a result, for damage amounts up to TRY
natural disasters under a single policy for our citizens. 50,000, payments were made directly to the insured. During
the process, we also encountered issues with incorrect con-
In the recent period, DASK coverage limits were increased. tact information listed in policies. In such cases, policyholders
What should individuals who have not yet updated their were unable to collect their compensation due to not receiving
policies do? the payment codes. To resolve this, a project was developed
in coordination with the Presidential Digital Transformation
As of January 1, 2024, the tariff for Compulsory Earthquake Office and e-Government authorities. In addition to the existing
Insurance was updated. With the changes: The unit square me- “DASK Damage/Payment Inquiry” feature on the e-Govern-
ter value used to calculate the insurance sum for reinforced ment portal, a new service called “DASK Payment Code Ser-
concrete structures was raised from TRY 3,016 to TRY 6,000. vice” was introduced. This allows policyholders to access their
The maximum coverage per residence was increased from TRY payment codes directly via e-Government.
640,000 to TRY 1,272,000. Additionally, for the first time
in DASK’s history, inflation protection has been introduced
for new policies issued after January 1, 2024. With inflation
protection, as of February, the square meter value increased
to TRY 7,800, and the maximum coverage limit rose to TRY
1,653,563. In summary, for all policies starting on or after
January 1, 2024, coverage amounts are calculated based on
the updated values and are also protected against inflation.
Coverage amounts will be automatically adjusted each month
according to the declared inflation rate without requiring any
additional premium payment.
We have followed that many new practices were
introduced during this process. Could you briefly tell us
about these implementations?

Since the first day of the earthquake, our priority as an institu-
tion has been to ensure that policyholders receive their compen-
sation as quickly as possible. In this context, we implemented
several new practices on behalf of DASK. First, in a DASK