Membership of Swedish Motor Insurers (TFF)

All insurance companies that are authorised to sell motor third party liability (MTPL) insurance in Sweden under the Motor Traffic Damage Act must be members of Swedish Motor Insurers (TFF). Membership means, among other things, that the insurance companies jointly finance TFF’s activities. In that way people who suffer injury or damage from uninsured, unknown or foreign vehicles are guaranteed help.

About applying

It is free of charge for an insurance company to apply for membership of TFF.

Foreign insurance companies are normally granted temporary membership pending completion of the process between the supervisory authorities concerned.

Application for membership must be made by a person authorised to represent the insurance company.

Apply for membership

There is no special application form for membership of TFF. The insurance company itself formulates the application, but there are requirements concerning what the application should include.

The application must include these details:

A request for membership of TFF and information on the date the insurance company plans to start selling MTPL insurance in Sweden. If the date cannot be stated exactly, an approximate date is to be given.
The insurance company’s postal and street address, telephone number and email address.
Full contact details of individuals within the insurance company that are responsible for claims and insurance matters in relation to TFF and other insurance companies.
Information on which claims representatives the insurance company has appointed in other EEA countries. (Appointing claims representatives is compulsory under Section 28 of the Motor Traffic Damage Act and Section 19 of the Motor Third Party Liability Insurance Ordinance).

If the applicant is a non-Swedish insurance company that is to sell MTPL insurance in Sweden, the application for membership must also include the following:

Information on whether operations are to be conducted from a secondary establishment in Sweden or through cross-border operations. In the case of a secondary establishment, it must be stated whether this is a general agent, branch or general representation. For cross-border operations without a fixed establishment in Sweden, it must be stated who is the insurance company’s representative in Sweden under Section 5 of the Motor Traffic Damage Act.
Documentation showing that Finansinspektionen (the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority) has been informed by the foreign supervisory authority that the insurance company is permitted to sell MTPL insurance and will also do so in Sweden.

The application with attached documents should be sent by post or email to TFF.

Our email address

Our postal address

When we have received the application we decide on membership.

When the insurance company has become a member of TFF it receives a company code from us. Each insurance company has a code and this is important both for you and for the Swedish Transport Agency. TFF decides on the company code. We only process codes related to MTPL insurance, no other policies. We notify the Swedish Transport Agency when we have allocated a code to an insurance company.

The members finance TFF

Under the Motor Traffic Damage Act the insurance companies that are licensed for class 10 must be members of TFF and are jointly and severally liable for financing our activities.

TFF’s activities are partly financed through our own revenue that largely consists of the MTPL insurance charge. However, the costs of the claims we pay compensation for are always higher.

The deficit that arises, including the cost of the Road Traffic Injuries Commission, is paid jointly by the members. Financing is through an annual contribution to TFF based on the individual insurance company’s market share of MTPL insurance. The contribution is based on the insurance company’s total gross premium revenue for direct MTPL insurance in Sweden.

More on the calculation of the contribution

TFF’s reported net income is broken down into claims costs by year of claim, MTPL insurance charges, asset management, other revenue and interest, as well as operating expense (including the Road Traffic Injuries Commission). Income for the current year is allocated on the basis of the members’ percentage share of the total premium volume for the year prior to the financial year.

Claims costs are recorded per claim year and are allocated in the same way as described above. There may be claims costs dating as far back as the 1970s. This means that premium volumes from the 1970s and onwards must be included in the settlement so that claims costs can be correctly allocated. The costs for each claim year must always be allocated on the basis of premium volume from the year before the claim year.

This is what members must report to us

Changes in the insurance company’s business structure

As a member you must report changes in the insurance company’s business structure every time they take place. This applies to mergers, buyouts or similar. It is important that you report this to us, since changes may be of significance for your membership.

Annual MTPL insurance statistics

In May every year TFF’s annual general meeting adopts a resolution on settlement, that is, how the contribution to TFF is to be jointly shared between the members. The annual general meeting must also draw up a voting list. At the beginning of the summer TFF sends out a letter requesting insurance companies to report the following statistics to us:

The insurance company’s total gross premium revenue for direct MTPL insurance in Sweden for the year that is two years prior to the current calendar year. (This is stipulated in Section 24 of the Motor Traffic Damage Act).
The number of vehicles with MTPL insurance under annual risk in the year two years before the current calendar year. (TFF’s statutes stipulate that the figure be based on ”the percentage of motor driven vehicles with MTPL insurance under annual risk in the year that is two years before the current calendar year, rounded to the nearest whole number”).

The concept of annual risk is used for statistics in various contexts. For example: If two cars have been insured for six months each during the year, together they constitute an annual risk, that is the insured period is combined to make one year. By calculating the number of days the insurance policy has been valid and dividing the figure by 365 the total number of annual insurance policies is obtained.
If the insurance company is appointed as correspondent in Sweden for one or more foreign insurance companies, certain claims statistics related to the role of correspondent must be reported to TFF.

Questions about membership

If as an insurance company you have questions about membership of TFF, please send us an email.