Screengrab from the evidence session streamed by Parliamentlive.tv
Allianz UK chief executive Colm Holmes and Association of British Insurers (ABI) regulation director Charlotte Clark (both pictured above) provided oral evidence during a Treasury Committee hearing on Wednesday as part of an inquiry on car insurance prices.
Holmes and Clark were part of the same panel, while a preceding session featured consumer groups Which? and Citizens Advice. A latter session was with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) insurance director Matt Brewis.
đŸ“ºToday we took evidence from @WhichUK , @CitizensAdvice , @BritishInsurers , @allianzuknews and @TheFCA about the insurance market.
— Treasury Committee (@CommonsTreasury) April 17, 2024
đŸ“¢Hear what the ABI said about changes in car insurance costs since the pandemicđŸ‘‡
Watch the whole session here: https://t.co/BSErvoOrdR pic.twitter.com/8zBaAdl9ua
During their turn, Allianz and the ABI were asked whether there had been unintended consequences from the introduction of the FCA Consumer Duty.
“None that we can see,” Holmes declared while conceding “there might be certain elements that might change” over time. For Clark, it’s probably too early to say.
The UK CEO of Allianz was also quizzed about the gap analysis carried out by the insurer in terms of where it might be falling short as far as the Consumer Duty requirements are concerned.
In response, Holmes shared: “We looked at 3,000 separate customer journeys and made 200 changes across that. It was around understanding of insurance – plainer English, greater explanation with regards to why premiums move, for example. We completely retrained all our staff…
“With the premium increases, it really is important to us that our customers understand why premiums are increasing. So, we’ve been very clear with our customers what is driving the costs… the increases in insurance and the constituent parts of that so they fully understand it.”
The chief executive also asserted: “It’s an incredibly competitive market, and the vast majority of our business we want to retain. So, we’ve actually done a huge amount of work in looking and testing each of those customer conversations, those customer journeys to ensure that the customer feeds back to us how they interpret that and what more they need from us.”
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