ILC ARTICLE

ILC Breakfast News – Wednesday 19 October 

18th October 2022

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Leading line-up unveiled for Home and Property Conference 

A leading line-up of speakers and panellists has been confirmed for the Home and Property Conference, which takes place at the CBS Arena, Coventry, on 10 November. 

Verisk recognised for innovation 

Verisk has been recognised by Celent as a ‘Luminary’ for developing innovative solutions that help property, casualty and life insurers detect claims fraud.     

The global data analytics provider was placed in the top group of providers for Advanced Technology and Breadth of Functionality in the Celent Technical Capability Matrix, which evaluated 17 fraud-detection solutions.   

Sales slide after two years of growth 

Sales for construction product manufacturers fell in the third quarter of 2022 after two years of successive growth. 

According to the Construction Products Association’s latest State of Trade Survey, 12% of heavy-side manufacturers saw sales decline while 17% of light-side manufacturers reported a slight increase. 

Looking ahead, 53% of heavy-side firms expect sales to drop further in the next 12 months while 13% of light-side manufacturers are predicting a fall in sales.  

New work driving construction output 

Contruction output rose for the second month in a row in August, increasing by 0.4% according to data from the Office of National Statistics. 

Growth was driven by new work (1.9%) while repair and maintenance fell by two per cent. 

The monthly trend is representative of the third quarter, during which time output rose 0.1%, with growth in new work (1.6%) offsetting a decline in repair and maintenance (2.4%). 

Motor

ARC360 offers free access to repairers

ARC360 is offering free access for repairers to its forthcoming ‘Gaining Ground Together’ themed event taking place on Thursday 24 November at the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Coventry. 

The move comes as ARC360 steps up its efforts to bring the repairer and supply chain communities together by providing a platform of collaboration and understanding for all stakeholders. 

Enterprise reports $30bn revenues 

Enterprise Holdings and its affiliate Enterprise Fleet Management has reported revenues in excess of $30bn during the fiscal year 2022. 

This has been driven by an increase in demand for travel, a strong performance in Europe and significant growth across North America. 

Copart gets into gear for charity  

Copart’s national account managers took part in The Insurance Charities’ annual go-karting Endurance Event, helping to raise upwards of £1,700. 

The charity provides assistance to UK and Irish employees and their families who are in need.  

Aviva unveils online solution 

Aviva has launched its online and self-service car insurance product, Quotemehappy.com Essentials, to all major price comparison websites. 

The product enables customers to renew or amend their policies online and have access to a 24/7 claims service. 

Policyholder favour green options

New research from Consumer Intelligence has found that 77% of drivers in the UK would prefer an insurer that was environmentally friendly, with 23% saying they would pay more for a car insurance policy that was green. 

Solera announces paint tables update 

Solera Audatex has updated its paint materials table for its Irish customers. 

The updates were made to bring the table in line with recent paint manufacturer price changes, which shows an indicative average increase of 19% on the calculated paint and materials. 

Mercedes secures highest ever Euro NCAP grading

The Mercedes-EQ EQE achieved the highest ever score in Assisted Driving Gradings in the latest round of Euro NCAP testing. 

It was given an Assistance Competence score of 85% and also became the first to achieve a perfect Safety Back-Up result of 100%. 

Meanwhile, the Atto 3 from Chinese manufacturer BYD received a five-star rating, as did the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, BMW X1, SEAT Ibiza and VW Golf. Four-star ratings were given to the Citroën C5 X and Mobilize Limo. 

ClaimsTech

Clearspeed secures Series C funding 

Clearspeed has raised nearly £24m in Series C funding to support rapid commercial expansion. 

The company, which develops voice analytics technology to combat fraud risks, secured further backing from Ian McKinnon, founder of Sandia Holdings, and Thomas O’Malley Jr, founder of PilotRock Investments, with additional funding coming from King Philanthropies. 

AXA launches digital-only insurance 

AXA UK Retail has unveiled its first digital-only insurance brand.  

Initially available to motor insurance customers, Moja allows customers to change policies or make claims via smartphones or tablets 24/7, with an option to speak to speak to a claims handler if necessary. 

Policies are now available on Compare the Market and via mojainsurance.co.uk/. 

Silver linings of cloud costs

Insurers using cloud-based technology to launch products can generate £24m in additional revenue over a five-year period. 

A report by Coretech Insight found that the benefits of shorter time-to-market exceed the costs of implementing and operating new cloud technology by as much as 40 times, while cloud-based technology can cut launch times from between one and two years to months. 

Mastercard makes crypto breakthough 

Mastercard has introduced a new solution enabling financial institutions introduce secure crypto trading capabilities and services to customers. 

Tailored for banks and fintechs, Crypto Source enables customers to hold and sell crypto assets while also providing security management through crypto analytics and transaction monitoring. 

It also offers transactional capabilities through products such as crypto cards, open banking and international services. 

MGA

Consumer Duty is coming – are you ready? 

No one will be exempt from the Financial Conduct Authority’s new Consumer Duty regulations, and for the insurance sector the road to compliance can be complicated. 

Industry News

Carpenters confirms campaign support 

Carpenters Group has announced it is supporting the Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign. 

The campaign aims to protect those who have suffered life-changing injuries by ensuring the laws created to make responsible parties meet their financial obligations are not eroded. 

Cost-of-living crisis impacting care 

The Rainbow Trust charity has found that families with a life-threatened or terminally ill child are not able to offer the support they’d like to as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. 

Its latest survey found that 62.5% of families say there is now less money for essentials like food, 61% say they are struggling to afford travel costs to hospital and 20% say running life-saving equipment at home is affecting their finances. 

Speed is of the essence 

The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Public Trust Index has revealed that the cost-of-living crisis is making faster claims payments an growing priority for policyholders. 

Its latest survey found that quicker payments rose from seventh to third in the list of priorities for policyholders. 

Matthew Connell, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, said, “Consumers do rate the value of the premiums they are paying as important, but quality of complaints handling and the clarity on policy wording is rated higher.” 

Recession set to last until next summer 

The UK economy is expected to be in recession until the middle of 2023. 

According to the new EY ITEM Club Autumn Forecast, an economic decline of 0.3% in quarter three is expected to be followed by 0.2% declines each quarter until next summer. 

McKinsey delivers sustainability skills  

McKinsey has launched a Sustainability Academy to help organisations give colleagues the skills needed to meet broader ESG targets. 

The Academy delivers formal training to candidates and helps them apply these new skills in a real-world context, while also supporting companies introduce new sustainable practices. 

Partner Pietro Sorrention said, “Private organisations have a central role to play to decarbonize our economy, but to do so they must build skills and capabilities that today they do not have. McKinsey’s Sustainability Academy was created exactly to do that: help companies accelerate change by supporting them in building new knowledge for their employees.” 

People

CoreLogic has appointed Matt McJannet as Senior Technical Manager (UK).

Paul Squires has been named Development Director at Sedgwick. 

Motability Operations has appointed Owain Reed as Supplier Management Owner, Insurance Transition. 

Qlaims has appointed Simon Fenwick as Chief Operating Officer. He joins from Hastings Direct with more than 20 years’ experience in the UK general insurance market.