Compulsory membership

(1) Undertakings authorised under section 8(1) or section 67(1) to conduct business in the classes of insurance named in Annex 1, points 19 to 23, or to conduct substitutive health insurance under section 146, with the exception of pension funds and death benefit funds, must belong to a protection fund serving to protect the claims of their policyholders, the insured persons, the beneficiaries, and the other persons benefiting under the insurance contract. Membership of a protection fund ends where the undertaking concerned no longer holds the authorisation to conduct business giving rise to the compulsory membership, and no longer runs off any insurance portfolio falling under that authorisation. Section 229(1) remains unaffected by this.
(2) Pension funds may voluntarily join a protection fund. To ensure comparable financial conditions among all members, the protection fund may make admission conditional on the fulfilment of specific conditions. Subsection (1), second and third sentences, applies correspondingly.