COB umbrella organization

The COB was founded in London in 1949. One year later, the first official meeting was held, during which the format of the Green Card was defined. The Green Card system was introduced on January 1, 1953. In the years that followed, the main aim was to standardize insurance cover internationally with various agreements and to optimize the protection of road accident victims. Examples of this were the London Agreement, the Multilateral Guarantee Agreement and the Agreement on the protection of visitors.

The COB’s statutes were adopted in 1991. In 1999, the COB celebrated its 50th anniversary in Oxford. In 2003, the Internal Regulations were issued, which replaced the London Agreement and the Multilateral Guarantee Agreement and regulate cooperation between the national bureaux of insurance in a uniform manner.

In 2019, the COB completed a major project lasting several years: the reorganization of the bureaux of insurance and guarantee funds of Europe and the Mediterranean countries. The new structures will enable not only the guarantee funds, but also the compensation bodies and information centers to become members of an association from 2020, in which previously only the bureaux of insurance were admitted.