The Surrey-headquartered motor and home insurance provider esure Group Plc has today revealed its trading highlights for the half-year period ended June 30, 2022.
Among the key figures published, esure revealed that its in-force policies decreased 3.2% from December 2021 to 2.5 million. It noted that this figure reflects current market conditions within the general insurance market, which has seen significant change in the last six months.
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Navigating the FCA GIPP pricing regulations alongside an increase in claims activity and “unsustainably low” market pricing, esure said it has maintained a disciplined approach to underwriting and pricing and that its pricing strategy has seen it increase rate ahead of the market.
Customer feedback has remained strong for the provider, with its Relationship Net Promoter Score of +31 stable in line with last year and on track to remain above target for 2022. Meanwhile, its capital position also remains strong, with a “healthy balance sheet, high credit quality and stable reserves.”
“Our reinsurance programme was renewed broadly in line with expiring cover levels,” esure stated. “Our balance sheet provides the group with resilience while enabling us to continue investing in our strategic transformation.”
The period also saw the launch of its new motor insurance product, esure Flex and the launch of its new digital claims ecosystem, as well as the roll-out of a new customer contact platform providing a single view of the customer across all channels. esure said it expects to remain within its target operating range for solvency coverage of 140-160% at the end of the current financial year, “despite ongoing investment, challenging market conditions and the short-term impact of higher interest rates on our asset portfolios.”
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“We remain focused on our continued strategic transformation to become the UK’s leading digital insurer, through investment in building world-class technology and data capabilities,” the provider said. “This will deliver better value for our customers, open up new opportunities for esure to grow and lower our unit cost.”
The firm also made a series of key appointments, strengthening its board and executive team – welcoming Elisabeth Ling to the esure board as an independent non-executive director and Helen Cooper as chief risk officer.
Commenting on esure’s H1 2022 performance, CEO David McMillan highlighted that the market environment remains “complex” with high claims inflation and continued unsustainably weak pricing evident in the market. Throughout the first half of the year, he said, esure has been focused on maintaining its underwriting and pricing discipline.
“We have also continued to make excellent progress against our ambition to become the UK’s leading digital insurer,” he added. I am delighted that we have been able to launch our first product on our new market-leading digital platform. We are focused on driving esure further to the forefront of digital customer experience, data science and innovation.
“esure’s investment in world-class technology and capabilities positions us well for the future. I want to thank the esure team for their tireless commitment to fixing insurance for good.”
