The UK’s general insurance industry is showing signs of stabilisation after experiencing significant disruptions caused by what has been described as the biggest-ever IT outage, according to Consumer Intelligence.
It was noted that the July 19 incident resulted from a flawed Windows update by CrowdStrike, impacting multiple industries globally, including the UK motor and home insurance sectors. An estimated 8.5 million devices were affected worldwide, but most are said to be now operational again.
In his apology, CrowdStrike founder and chief executive George Kurtz stated: “The outage was caused by a defect found in a Falcon content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This was not a cyberattack.
“We are working closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure that all systems are restored so you can deliver the services your customers rely on.”
Consumer Intelligence, meanwhile, has been closely monitoring the situation to understand its impact on the general insurance industry in the UK. Noteworthy disruptions included failures in registration look-ups, underwriting changes leading to substantial price hikes, and significant drops in quotability for several brands.
Under home insurance, 17 brands showed price increases on Friday, with four experiencing average premium hikes ranging from 32% to a staggering 65%.
“For one insurer, the average annual premium rose by £439,” Consumer Intelligence highlighted. “The disappearance of some key underwriters contributed to these increases.
“Despite these disruptions, the home insurance market showed signs of recovery faster than the motor segment. By July 20, home insurance pricing appeared to stabilise, although further analysis is needed to understand the long-term impacts fully.”
Home insurance quotability also saw an initial decline but rebounded relatively swiftly by July 21.
In the motor insurance sector, 25 brands saw price increases, with many of the more significant adjustments likely due to manual registration searches resulting from look-up failures and changes in underwriter availability.
According to Consumer Intelligence, quotability also dropped on Friday but was less affected than home insurance, with only two brands considerably impacted before recovering the following day.
Beyond pricing and quotability disruptions, however, Consumer Intelligence said several brands are still reporting issues with their contact centres and live chat services.
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