motor Jack Brownhill WORLD MOTOR CONSULTANCY Motoring on...
“ In 2002 there was a merger proposal between ”
f they ever make a film about the UK motor insurance market you can be sure that it will not be titled “All Quiet on the Western Front”! As this article is being written, a number of “Quinn Questions” remain unanswered, but no doubt all will become clear over time. There have been the inevitable
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comparisons with the demise of Independent Insurance and phrases along the lines of “I told you so” and “it was too good to last” are ringing out all round the market. From a regulation
perspective Quinn is, of course, the responsibility of the Irish financial regulator, who allow
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Quinn to continue to trade in Ireland while putting a block on all new business and renewals in the UK.
I am not sure whether this reflects the regulator’s view of Quinn’s activities in the UK; the UK market in general; or both. Interestingly, in the last few years the vast majority of new motor insurers in the UK have been established outside of the UK and are not directly regulated by the FSA. Is this where the future lies?
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The aggregators continue to take a pasting from the media, and indeed anybody else who believes they have a role in
the ABI and the British Bankers’ Association. It never went through – a close call and surely one we would have all lived to regret!
commentating on the motor market. Two of our largest insurer players place great emphasis in their advertising on the fact that they do not play the aggregator game. But it’s doubtful that many other players have the strength to turn their backs on comparison sites.
Some may claim, perhaps rightly so, that they now have the measure of these sites and understand how they can make them work, both from a financial perspective and in respect of quality of risk.
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On a distinctly positive note, electronic certificates have now
received the green light with the relevant legislation being passed just before the abrupt halt to parliamentary activity. It would be rather unfair to badge those who believed electronic certificates would never happen as cynics, but as the weeks, months and years slipped by even the most optimistic of us probably started to feel that they would never happen! At present I would not trust even Mystic Meg to accurately predict the outcome of the approaching General Election. We can only hope that the newly elected occupiers of the corridors of power do not consign Continuous Insurance Enforcement to that great
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