It’s not a competition to see who’s ahead of the pack when it comes to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) readiness, but it’s a noteworthy development that in the UK the perception of GDPR has shifted positively.
New research by data specialist W8Data has found that, over the last six months, the attitude towards the new directive has changed from what was originally predominately negative – what with more firms now saying that compliance isn’t as scary as previously thought of. And as they say with any endeavour, acceptance is the first step.
This now brings us to the issue of preparedness, which the study also examined, not only in the UK but in other European countries as well. It turns out UK insurance companies are more prepared than their counterparts.
Looking at the top 10 European countries by GDP, W8Data’s research revealed that only 29% of the British insurance industry is unprepared for the regulation taking effect in May. That puts the UK up in the league table, while Spanish insurers find themselves at the bottom with 73% of them not ready for GDPR.
|
Position |
Country |
% of insurers unprepared |
|
1 |
UK |
29 |
|
2 |
Germany |
48 |
|
3 |
Poland |
52 |
|
4 |
Austria |
53 |
|
5 |
France |
54 |
|
6= |
Benelux |
59 |
|
6= |
Russia |
59 |
|
8 |
Italy |
63 |
|
9 |
Sweden |
71 |
|
10 |
Spain |
73 |
“Due to a strong history in direct marketing insurers in the UK have long been aware of the power of customer data and therefore maybe this experience has made them face up to GDPR more quickly than their counterparts in other European countries,” commented W8Data managing director Will Anthes. “But whatever the reason it is fantastic news that UK insurers are leading the march when it comes to compliance.”
