The market share of banks in home insurance is rapidly rising at the expense of brokers, according to financial products research company Defaqto.
Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax currently insure around 43% of the UK household market, with around 7.7 million policies between them. Lloyds TSB also has a sizeable operation, Defaqto said.
Brian Brown, executive director of Defaqto, said: “Over the past four to five years there has been a rapid and significant shift from the traditional brokered sales model to the insurer direct model.
“Many companies are using multi-brand strategies for selling home insurance and, increasingly, white-labelling has meant the appearance – at least from the buying public's perspective – of a wide choice of insurers.”
Companies like Marks & Spencer, Argos and Tesco also use extensive on-site advertising and loyalty card mailings to entice customers, he said.
