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QBE’s intermediated business in Australia is “performing well”, Group CEO Pat Regan has said.
Speaking after the firm’s financial results were released this week, Regan said that intermediated business performed better in 2017 than it did in 2016.
“[That is] partly helped by the pricing environment which is clearly better in Australia,” Regan told Insurance Business. “We made progress on pretty much all parts of our intermediated business. We had good retention on our books as well and did good work with our broker partners and our customers.”
Regan noted that while commercial insurance is experiencing price rises, some areas of the market remain more challenging than others.
Commercial property was highlighted by Regan as an area that remains “pretty tough” when it comes to pricing increases, while the insurer said that higher rate increases had been achieved in the short tail personal, commercial and workers’ compensation portfolios.
The firm announced that its premium retention rate remained stable at 82% and Regan noted this had been a particular focus for the business.
“We do a bit of work on our net promoter score measurements with our broker partners and that allows us to measure what we are doing and get feedback directly back from them about what we are doing well and what we can do better,” Regan said.
“We did quite a bit of work in 2017 about our claims service as to how we can provide better claims service to our broker partners and ultimately their end customers as well.”
While QBE intends to make changes over the coming years in a bid to provide more consistent results and lower risk within the business, Regan said that brokers will remain a vital aspect of the business.
“It is the lifeblood of what we do at QBE. We work for our broker partners and our job is to provide a good service to them and a good service to the end customer,” Regan said. “That is still very much at the heart of what we are doing.”
