Financial services updater

Insurance

ABI industry report 2007/08: Customer impact survey

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has published a report entitled ABI industry report 2007/8: Customer impact survey (the Report). The Report sets out the findings from the ABI’s consumer impact survey for 2007/08, in which 32 companies participated and a total of 19,425 customers were surveyed. The key findings of the survey were:

• Reputation of the insurance industry - 53 per cent of customers ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that the industry has an excellent reputation, compared with 48% in 2006/07.
• Key image statements - 86 per cent of customers ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that their company was ‘easy to do business with’, while 77 per cent felt that their provider ‘really cares about its customers’. These scores have increased by 1 per cent and 2 per cent respectively on 2006/07. The same proportion of customers as last year, 85 per cent, felt that their provider ‘treats customers fairly’.
• Customer advocacy - 53 per cent of customers said that they would be ‘extremely’ or ‘very likely’ to recommend their company, down 2 per cent on last year.
• Sales - 53 per cent of customers rated the sales process as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ this year compared with 57 per cent last year. Of the different aspects of a sale, customers rated payment handling highest. Clarity of information at point of sale scored lowest, as in 2006/07.
• Claims - 50 per cent of customers rated the claims and payments process as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’, down from 53 per cent last year. Customers rated the speed of payment most favourably, while the way companies keep customers updated on the progress of their claim was viewed most negatively.
  
• Complaints - 3 per cent of customers surveyed had made a complaint to their provider in the past 12 months compared with 4 per cent last year. 10 per cent said that the way the company handled their complaint was ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ compared with 14 per cent in 2006/07. 57 per cent of customers felt that their complaint had been handled poorly, an increase of 7 per cent on last year.

View ABI industry report 2007/08: Customer impact survey, (PDF 503KB), 19 February 2008

Main conclusions of the CEIOPS members’ meeting on 18 February 2008

The Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) has published its main conclusions that were adopted at its members’ meeting on 18 February 2008.
CEIOPS is to publish for comment its draft Advice on proportionality which addresses how to gear the risk-based regime of Solvency II to the nature, scale and complexity of an insurer’s or reinsurer’s risks. CEIOPS will also publish for comment its draft Advice on the framework Directive proposal relating to insurance groups which focuses on measures to facilitate their effective supervision.

View Main conclusions of the CEIOPS members’ meeting on 18 February 2008, (PDF 85.2KB), 18 February 2008