ILC ARTICLE

Breakfast News – Wednesday 22 September

22nd September 2021

Motor

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In this webinARC we catch up with some leading repairers to discuss the current state of the market; what it means for business; and how they are gearing for the future.
Featuring: Darren Wills, Executive Director, Motofix Accident Repair Centres & Micah Sherwood, Bodyshop Manager, English Ford – Foray Motor Group Ltd

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GT Motive under new ownership

Allianz X, the digital investment arm of Allianz Group, has agreed to purchase a majority stake in GT Motive from its current owners, Mitchell International. GT Motive develops solutions for estimating and managing automotive insurance claims across the automotive, insurance and fleet sectors.

Dr Nazim Cetin, CEO of Allianz X, said: “GT Motive provides highly accurate data at competitive prices and one of the most integrative, customer-centric platforms on the market. We see enormous potential to scale it up into a hard-hitting heavyweight. All it needs is some more muscle behind it—and that’s where Allianz X can help.”

Zurich announces KGM contract

Zurich UK has completed a new long-term agreement with KGM Underwriting which secures its solus capacity for KGM’s motor portfolio for the next five years.

The deal with KGM, one of the UKs leading specialist and niche motor insurers and part of the A-Plan/Howden Group, is worth over £700m and will commence in January 2022. 

Drivers adopting policy of automatic renewal

New research has found that 17% of drivers let their car insurance policies renew automatically, with 15% of that number saying changing policies is too much hassle. One in 10 also worried they’d lose their no claims bonus.

The survey, carried out by GoCompare, revealed that only 36% of drivers actively switched insurers with higher renewal prices cited as the reason 37% of them decided to go elsewhere.

New startup promises insurance disruption

A new motor insurer has launched into the UK market promising to change the way policies are priced.

Adiona operates a usage-based insurance model that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse driver behaviour, enabling it to set policy prices according to how, where and when customers drive instead of traditional criterion such as age, income, location and occupation.

Whiplash reforms slowly paying off

Early indications are that the whiplash reforms are starting to result in lower premiums.

Legislative changes to personal injury claims came into effect on 31 May, with research by Consumer Intelligence based on its price tracker finding that premiums are now coming down, although annual savings per policy have not yet reached the £35 predicted.

Meanwhile, another Consumer Intelligence survey found that 23% of men and 17% of women said they would definitely go electric when they next purchase a car. Just one in five motorists ruled it out completely.

Enterprise on the road to connected fleet

Enterprise is working with Microsoft to introduce fully connected car technology to its car rental, exotic vehicles and commercial truck rental fleets in the US, Canada and the UK.

Nearly 350,000 vehicles in the US will go live with the technology later this year, and the company has plans to convert its entire global fleet within five years.

The technology will remove friction from customer transactions by streamlining processes such as fuel level readings, odometer readings and checking vehicles in and out.

ClaimsTech

How can insurers test new technology successfully? Register now…

Join us on Wednesday 29 September at 2PM (BST) for the second of our four-part webinar series with Tractable. In this webinar we discuss how, when looking at new solutions, you work out whether they really do what they claim? What questions should you ask? And what makes a successful demo and test? 

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Lemonade sparkles with puppy love pet care

Lemonade has expanded its Lemonade Pet portfolio with a new insurance product designed for puppies and kittens under two years old.

Unlike most pet insurance products, which focus on cover for illness and accidents, the new package from Lemonade offers coverage for preventative procedures like spay and neuter, microchipping, flea medication, and up to six vaccines or boosters.

Huber appointed to accelerate expansion

Wefox has appointed former Zurich International CEO Peter Huber as chief operating officer. His arrival is expected to support the accelerated rollout of new products following a $650m funding round.

The Berlin-based insurance technology company, which has ambitions to become the leading personal insurer within a decade, intends to launch a new product every week during 2022 as it expands from property and casualty products into health and life insurance.

Lucida strengthens leadership team

New insurance group Lucida has strengthened its senior team with two key appointments.

Simon Pearce has joined as chief executive officer of the broking division and Insiyah Davenport has been named group chief risk officer.

Lucida is a new insurance broking group that brings together a number of successful UK broker businesses including Right Choice Insurance Brokers, Bennetts and Moorhouse. It has been established to support specialist businesses to grow in their respective niches.

Ticker set for significant growth

Ticker has named Yannis Korgialos as its new chief operating officer. Korgialos joins from Digital Partners, where, in his role as commercial director, he was a key figure in the partnership between the two companies.

The appointment comes as Ticker enters a new phase of product development and volume growth, with the ambition to be the UK’s leading insurtech providing connected motor insurance.

Home

The Claims Challenges Today: Book your space at this year’s Home & Commercial Claims Conference

On 11 November the ILC Home and Property Conference returns to the CBS (Ricoh) Arena in Coventry

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CoreLogic confirms strategic acquisition

CoreLogic has completed the acquisition of Next Gear Solutions.

CoreLogic is a property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider while Next Gear Solutions delivers digital workflow platforms and solutions for the property restoration industry. The combination of the two technologies is intended to enhance the claims experience for policyholders.

Meanwhile, CoreLogic is estimating that Tropical Storm Ida caused an estimated $16bn to $24bn in insured and uninsured inland flood losses to residential and commercial properties.

Hippo launches new home-owners package

Home insurance group Hippo has expanded its product range with its Builders Program which it claims simplifies the home purchase process and delivers tailored home insurance directly to buyers of newly built homes.

The program includes a dedicated insurance agency that evaluates quotes from a variety of providers, advanced smart home integrations like whole-home water shut-off valves that support home protection and lower insurance, and a digital process that makes home insurance available in just a few clicks.

Home insurance premiums down on 2020 levels

UK homeowners are paying 5.6% less on insurance premiums than they were 12 months ago, and 6.4% less than the June 2020 peak.

This is according to analysis from Consumer Intelligence, which found that the average buildings and contents policy now stands at £144, with £151 for under 50s and £134 for over 50s.

However, premiums are expected to starting rising again as the country emerges from Covid-19.

IUA urges quality over cost in construction

A new survey of International Underwriting Association (IUA) members has found that three quarters of respondents do not believe the construction industry has learnt the lessons of Grenfell.

They believe the focus remains on cost instead of quality, making it difficult for underwriters providing coverage.

Despite that, insurers are prepared to underwrite fire safety risks on new projects to remove defective cladding from high-rise buildings, with around two thirds stating they would provide a limited form of cover, with a further four per cent happy to offer unrestricted protection. 

Market News

Innovation Group boss joins gender equality club

The Automotive 30% club has welcomed its latest member, Innovation Group managing director John Watson.

The Automotive 30% Club was founded in 2016 to help engineer a better gender balance within the automotive industry by ensuring that at least 30% of key positions within member organisations are filled by women by 2030.

The voluntary network comprises managing directors and chief executive officers from UK-based automotive manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers.

Irish insurance bailout fund proposed

The Department of Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland is proposing a rescue fund to bail out insurers. This comes nearly a decade after the costly collapse of companies such as Quinn Insurance and Setanta Insurance.

The proposal calls for the Central Bank to be given control of administrators’ fees in the event of liquidation – which exceeded €20 million in the case of Quinn Insurance – as well as the creation of a support fund which policyholders would pay in to.

Markerstudy appoints new non-execs

Markerstudy Group has named Neil Utley and Matthew Donaldson as non-executive directors.

Neil Utley takes up the position with more 30 years’ experience in finance and insurance behind him, including positions as chief executive at Privilege Insurance Company and Cox Insurance Group, while Matthew Donaldson was most recently group CEO of BGL Group, which he joined as national sales and operations director in 2001. He has also held pivotal roles such as director of e-commerce, managing director, and group COO. 

Leading consultants make net zero pledge

A dozen leading investment consulting firms have joined forces to create the Net Zero Investment Initiative, which will support the aim of global net zero gas emissions by 2050. The initiative, which lists nine specific action points to deliver their objective, is endorsed by the United Nations’ Race to Zero campaign.

The investment consultants are: Barnett Waddingham, bfinance, Cambridge Associates, Cardano, Frontier, Hymans Robertson, JANA, LCP, Meketa, Redington, Willis Towers Watson and Wilshire.

Culture dashboard reveals promising signs

Lloyd’s has published its second Culture Dashboard, which was introduced last year to monitor issues such as gender and ethnic equality across the sector.

In terms of gender, it found that 28% of firms in the market have so far achieved its 35% target of female employees. Meanwhile, the current level of representation of ethnic minority people is eight per cent in the market and 22% in the corporation – well short of the 33% it is striving for in new hires. However, 74% of companies are able to provide ethnicity data compared to 43% in 2020.