The green insurance sticker that must be affixed to the windshield of your car could soon disappear.
It’s a 36-year-old habit that may soon die out. The insurance certificate, this small square of green paper, which must be displayed on the windshield of your vehicle every year, could quickly be ancient history. Insurers are asking for it. Discussions are underway with the Ministries of Economy, Transport and Interior.
“At the time, it was rightly created to fight against non-insurance. But today we have all the technical means to simplify the life of the French and improve the fight against fraud”, explains to the Parisian Franck Le Vallois, managing director of France Assureurs, the federation of 247 French insurance companies.
The police can indeed check in the File of insured vehicles (FAV), by indicating the license plate, if the car they control is insured or not. This file was created in 2016 and the gendarmes and police have had access to it since 2019. Any new insured vehicle must be registered within 72 hours.
For insurers, the abolition of the green sticker would represent a real source of savings. 50 million insurance certificates are printed every year. It’s as much paper saved with the stamps that go with it.
A decree must be published to authorize the removal of the paper sticker. Not for now since a new government must first be formed. Once the decree is published, insurers intend to “prepare the minds” of their customers before removing the small green insurance sticker for good.