Will new U.K. insurance regulations limit industry competition?

UK Insurance regulations

Insurers and consumers across the United Kingdom are wondering if new rules will spike prices. The U.K. government and industry regulators have now begun a new move to help to make changes to the insurance regulations that are currently in place through the Solvency II regime. The reason is that the government and insurance regulators are worried about a less competitive market. Recently, submissions were made to the European Commission, the Bank of England, and the Treasury in order to underscore the insurance regulations they are seeking to change. Within…

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U.K. regulators claim aggregators putting consumers at risk

Insurance regulators in the United Kingdom have found some problems with several online insurance quote aggregators, raising concerns as to whether the companies responsible for these websites were treating customers fairly. The Financial Services Authority has found instances of compliance failure with websites dealing in home and auto insurance. The regulatory group has been reviewing this particular sector of the insurance industry for several months now in an attempt to curtail fraud. So far, 19 companies have been found as failing to adhere to regulatory rules. Investigators reportedly discovered failures…

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Tensions mount between brokers and underwriters

The chief executive of Catlin Group spoke at a London conference earlier this week. The conference was sponsored by Insurance Day. In London, the brokers and the underwriters they work with have been in a dispute over payments and what some consider, ‘contingent commissions’.   Contingent commission is a term to describe payment to an insurance intermediary by the insurer or underwriter based on the profitability (or lower than average loss) of the business the intermediary placed with them. This practice was addressed in the U.S. several years ago; After a…

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