Frequently Asked Questions

The Central Information System Foundation (CIS) is an organisation for insurance companies operating in the Netherlands. The CIS database contains information that may be relevant to its participating insurance companies and their authorised agents. 

Under certain conditions we make the information in the database available to our members and other bodies such as the police and the judicial authorities. Our members are insurance companies and authorised agents and organisations approved by the CIS board. 

We also make the personal data we manage available to consumers if they ask to access it by submitting a Request for Access.

Reports can be entered in the CIS database by participating insurance companies and authorised agents. Click here for the list of members. 

We also receive reports that are the responsibility of the Association of Insurers, RDW (on behalf of the Public Prosecution Service) and the Motor Traffic Guarantee Fund.

Claim reports (CM)
All claims received by insurance companies or authorised agents are entered in the CIS database. It doesn’t matter who is at fault or whether a claim will or will not be paid under the terms of the policy. It is simply about the fact that a person has made a claim on their insurance. Only factual information and the personal details of the people involved in the claim are registered.

Motor Traffic Guarantee Fund (WBF)
If an uninsured car, motor bike, moped etc. is involved in a collision, the details of the registered keeper, owner and driver of the vehicle are registered in the CIS database.

Confidential notices (VM) 
In certain circumstances an insurance company or authorised agent has the right to cancel an insurance policy itself. It can only do so if this is stated in the policy terms and conditions for the insurance products concerned. For example, if an insured person does not meet their obligations, an insurance company or authorised agent may decide to cancel the policy. If the policy is cancelled because the insured person has not fulfilled their part of the agreement, this cancellation can be registered in the CIS database.
Note that if you cancel an insurance policy yourself, the cancellation won’t be registered in the CIS database.

Driving disqualification (OBM)
The Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management has given its approval for driving disqualifications to be registered in the CIS database. It is important for a motor vehicle insurance company or authorised agent to know whether an insured person has been temporarily or permanently disqualified from driving. The information on the disqualification is submitted by the Public Prosecution Service after the person has been disqualified from driving by a court.
NB: If a driving disqualification is registered in the CIS database and you disagree with the fact that it has been registered, CIS can’t act as an intermediary. To discuss the appropriateness of a registered driving disqualification, please contact the public prosecutor’s office at the court that issued the disqualification. 

External Reference Index (EVR)
This contains information on insured people or other people or companies who have intentionally deceived the insurance company or its authorised agents, 
such as, for example, people who have committed or attempted to commit insurance fraud. 

People who did not tell the whole truth about their insurance history or criminal record when applying for a new insurance policy may also receive an EVR. 

Reports in our database can be consulted by our participating insurance companies and authorised agents. Click here for the list of members. Information can also be sent to investigation authorities such as the police and the judicial authorities.

The participating insurance company or authorised agent who enters a report in the CIS database is responsible for its content. If there is a mistake in the information, the insurance company or authorised agent that registered the information is responsible for correcting it.

That depends on the type of report. A loss claim report or a record of the cancellation of an insurance policy is kept for five years. A driving disqualification is removed five years from the last day of the disqualification. A confidential notice in connection with cancellation due to non-fulfilment of contractual obligations is removed after five years. A confidential notice in connection with cancellation due to non-fulfilment of financial contractual obligations is removed after three years. The External Reference Index can be consulted in the CIS database for up to a maximum of eight years.

The information in the CIS database is used to check information given by a new or existing insured person. The information source is intended to help establish a risk, for example, or to check whether something is being claimed for a second time. If a person applying for a policy states that they never made a claim on their previous policy but the information in the CIS database indicates that they did, the insurance company or authorised agent can refuse to insure that person because they are seen as untrustworthy.

Yes. Insurance companies and authorised agents are under no obligation to accept you as a customer. It is only health insurance companies who have to accept everyone as a customer for basic insurance. Insurance companies and authorised agents can decide for themselves who they will or will not accept. They may all have different reasons for their decisions. To find out more about a company’s underwriting policy, you can contact them directly.

No. An insurance company or authorised agent can only refuse you for a reason stated in their underwriting policy. The fact that someone’s personal details are in the CIS database is not in itself a valid reason for them to be refused a new insurance policy. If your application is refused, ask the insurance company or authorised agent for more information on their underwriting policy. CIS cannot provide any information on this. 

No. At CIS we don’t know the individual underwriting policies of our members and we aren’t involved in that. The insurance companies and authorised agents themselves are responsible for explaining why they have refused to insure you.  If one insurance company or authorised agent refuses you, that doesn’t mean that another will do the same.

First you can try another insurance company or authorised agent. Not every insurance company or authorised agent has the same underwriting policy. You can also try De Vereende through an insurance adviser. De Vereende is the company that insures exceptional risks, i.e. cases which other insurance companies or authorised agents might turn down, perhaps because:

  • you have been involved in a large number of claims 
  • you are in arrears with your premium payments 
  • you have a criminal record 
  • you have been disqualified from driving 
  • you have committed insurance fraud.

De Vereende accepts almost everyone, but it sometimes sets additional conditions or charges higher premiums than other insurance companies or authorised agents. Like other companies, De Vereende is not obliged to accept everyone as a customer.

Participating insurance companies and authorised representatives must provide a reference to CIS in their consumer information, their policy terms and conditions, the privacy statements on their websites and on their claim forms. This explains that if you are accepted as a customer, your personal data may be processed for risk assessment, claim assessment and fraud management purposes. With special records, for example if the insurance company cancels a policy, the person concerned will often also be notified specifically that their personal data is being registered.

You can submit a Request for Access to the CIS Inspection Team. You must send this in by post, and it must be accompanied by a copy of a valid ID document. More information and a link to the form can be found under Accessing your records. Because it is important for us to know who is asking for the information, and because we don’t want to send the information to someone who is not entitled to it, we do not provide any information about records or personal data by telephone.

Once we receive your request and we have checked that all the requirements for accessing the information are met, you will receive a summary of the personal data registered with us within one month. This period is laid down by law in the General Data Protection Regulation. However, we aim to process your Request for Access within 10 working days.

No, the right to access records is person-specific. So the person concerned must submit the request themselves along with a copy of a valid ID document. Also, our inspection team will only respond directly to the person concerned. The only exception is when a guardian submits a Request for Access on behalf of a person subject to a guardianship order. An administrator cannot therefore submit a Request for Access on behalf of somebody subject to an administration order. The records do not contain any information on financial assets and access is not a financial decision. If an administrator wishes to access the data, the data subject must submit the Request for Access him or herself and then pass the information on to the administrator. Alternatively, the data subject can provide the administrator with authorisation to access his or her personal data in the CIS database. 

No. Because we are extremely careful about how we handle your personal data and want to be sure we send it to the right person, we need to receive a handwritten and signed request from you, accompanied by a copy of your ID document.

Send the form along with a copy of your ID document to: 
CIS
T.a.v. Team Linage 
PO Box 91627
2509 EE The Hague

Most likely because you have opened the email in the internet browser CHROME. If you see a red line, this has to do with the settings in your internet browser.

If you open your email in another browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox), you will see the message properly.

We can only start processing your request once we have received the signed confirmation (or your details including your signature on a blank form) together with a copy of your ID document sent to our PO Box address.

Send the form along with a copy of your ID document to: CIS
T.a.v. Team Linage 
PO Box 91627
2509 EE The Hague

Once you have sent in a Request for Access and have received a reply, you can submit a Correction Request. You will find a link to the form concerned under Correcting an incorrect record. On this form you must clearly state which information is incorrect and why. Make sure you quote the reference number of the report you want correcting. After receiving the Correction Request (along with the disputed record), the CIS Inspection Team will send it to the insurance company or authorised agent responsible for adding the report to the CIS database. The insurance company or authorised agent will decide whether to make the correction.

In that case you can file a complaint with the complaints committee of the insurance company or authorised agent concerned. If you have already done that, you can file a complaint with the Financial Services Complaints Institute (www.kifid.nl). You can, of course, also take the matter to court, but this is usually an expensive option.

No, CIS cannot correct a driving disqualification record and cannot mediate in such a request. To discuss the appropriateness of a registered driving disqualification, please contact the public prosecutor’s office at the court that issued the disqualification. A record of a driving disqualification is always based on a court judgment. If the driving disqualification was not justified, it should have been contested by lodging an appeal against it. If you still want to get a driving disqualification corrected, you should provide CIS with evidence that the judgment has been withdrawn or reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service. 

By submitting a Request for Access, you are only asking to see the personal data registered about you. It will not tell you the reason why you have been refused insurance.

If this is not clear, you can always ask the insurance company or authorised agent to explain why they refused you