Head of Broker Development, Tim Baxter, shares his thoughts with Youtalk as he reflects on industry changes and the Broker market’s appetite for Prestige Underwriting’s newly launched non-standard motor and CV products.
A lot can happen in a month, or even a week in our industry, so naturally we were very keen to understand what had changed in the non-standard Motor space having been absent for 20 months. It is certainly an interesting time to be re-launching our non-standard Motor and CV proposition taking into consideration the impact of Covid-19, market activity and fair pricing.
In 2020 the UK motor insurance market recorded its best underwriting profit since records, with a Net Combined Ratio (NCR) of 90.3%, according to EY’s latest UK Motor Insurance Results. Fast forward to 2022 where the NCR is predicted to return to a loss making 112%, with claims costs expected to be 25% higher than in 2021, due to the lockdown in the first part of this year. Underlying inflation, premium rate falls and costs associated with the FCA’s General Insurance Pricing Practices Review will also impact profitability, therefore the projection for 2022 is very much that of a hardening market. Couple all the above with the FCA paper on General Insurance Pricing Practices requirements in January, it is reasonable to say we were particularly keen to track the initial results from our go live!
Our time out of market has not only allowed us to refresh and rebrand our non-standard Motor and CV proposition, but to also announce to the market the expansion of our 5-year partnership with Aviva to include UK Motor and CV - we are thrilled with the foundation that this provides to scale up through this year and beyond.
One thing that is abundantly clear after 60 days trading is that the demand, with our established network of brokers, is as strong as it ever was. We are delighted with the response from our broker community and the new members that have joined post launch, the support has been really overwhelming.
It is clear that client requirements for unique coverage if anything has increased over the last year or two. For example, we are seeing increased numbers of commercial vehicle conversions where people are using the impact of Covid to start up that business that perhaps they have always wanted to. Offering a flexible approach to convicted drivers, imported vehicles, modifications, and other non-standard motor risks with the comfort of a product that has A+ rated security, has been very well received in the market indeed. We understand the importance of rated capacity for brokers, and this has been pivotal to the success of our proposition across Motor and Home.
We have a number of key developments on our roadmap for 2022 and beyond that will take our Motor and CV proposition to the next level in terms of functionality as well as distribution and we cannot wait to share those plans with our trading partners new and old.
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