[Inclosure in No.
418.—Translation.]
Decree No. 294, of September 5, 1895, regulating the foreign life
insurance companies operating in the territory of Brazil.
I, the President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, make
known that the National Congress has decreed and that I sanction the
following law:
Article 1. Life insurance companies
authorized to operate in Brazil, and whose head offices are situated
in a foreign country, shall present to the Government and publish in
the press, within sixty days of the promulgation of this law, a
minute relation of all the insurances guaranteed by them and in
force within the territory of the Republic, indicating with the
number of each policy the name of the person insured, as well as the
amount insured, the premium or yearly payment, and the amount of
reserve belonging to the said policy on the 1st of January,
1894.
Article 2. The total of the reserves of all
the policies in force in Brazil on that date shall be invested in
national securities, such as real estate within the territory of the
Republic, mortgages upon property and real estate, railroad shares,
banks, or industrial enterprises or others established in Brazil, or
in deposits for the term of one year at least in banking
establishments operating in Brazil.
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Article 3. Such life insurance companies
shall prove before the Government, within sixty days of the
promulgation of this law, that the total of the reserves treated of
in the preceding article is employed in conformity with the
requirements of said article, publishing such proof in the press, in
order to secure the inspection of those interested.
Article 4. From the date of the
promulgation of this law, after the necessary amount for general
expenses, death losses, dividends, and other payments to the insured
shall have been deducted from the total of the premiums received by
those companies in Brazil, all of the balance shall be converted in
the manner set forth in the said article 2.
Article 5. The said insurance companies
shall be obliged to require their principal agency in Brazil to
decide upon all insurance applications made here, rejecting or
accepting the same, and in the latter case issuing the definite
policies.
Sole paragraph: If, within fifteen days of the receipt of the
application by the principal agency, it be not rejected and the
amount corresponding to the first premium paid by the applicant be
received by the agency, the insurance will have full effect the same
as if the policy were issued, the company then being unable to
reject the same.
Article 6. The recognition and liquidation
of the death losses, and of the reclamations of the insured, must
also be considered and definitely decided upon by the principal
agency in Brazil.
Article 7. The companies must, at the end
of each half year, and within the two months following, present to
the Government and publish in the press a minute relation of all the
premiums received corresponding to the life insurances contracted to
date, from sixty days after the promulgation of this law.
Article 8. Within sixty days of the
promulgation of this law the companies to which it refers shall
communicate officially to the minister of finance that they accept
the execution of the obligations prescribed in it.
Sole paragraph: To the company failing to do so, will be suspended
the permission of making new insurance contracts in Brazil, being
limited henceforth to receiving the premiums on the insurances in
force up to that date, and to execute the compromises taken in
accordance with the respective contracts.
Article 9. Given this hypothesis, if, later
on, the company should decide to accept the obligations of the
present law it shall petition the Government for authorization, the
same as by the present laws must be done by foreign companies that
desire to operate in the territory of the republic, and the
authorization being conceded, it shall make a new guarantee deposit
in the national treasury.
Sole paragraph: The company which without authorization and given the
hypothesis of article 8 and its paragraph accepts new contracts of
insurance will have to turn over to the treasury 10 per cent of the
premiums which it may have received for the same until the referred
to authorization shall have been solicited and obtained.
In case of nonpayment within fifteen days of the intimation by the
fiscal department the required amount shall be collected from the
deposit which, as a guaranty in virtue of the law, the company may
have made in the national treasury when it commenced to operate.
Article 10. The Government will expedite
regulations for the good execution of this law.
Capital Federal,
5th of September, 1895, seventh year of
the Republic.
- Prudente J. de Moraes
Barros.
- Francisco de Paula Rodrigues
Alves.
