FCA to pilot general insurance claims scorecards

The FCA plans a pilot launch of general insurance ‘scorecards’, which are designed to show how certain products respond to claims.

The pilot will be launched in summer 2016 for ‘a small number of products’ and will last for 12 months.

The FCA said the scorecards are designed to show how often consumers are likely to claim on a product, how likely those claims are to be accepted and average claims pay-out.

A spokeswoman said that the regulator has yet to determine which products will be included in the pilot and  which measures will be published.

Under the pilot, the FCA plans to collect data from firms and publish it in an easily-accessible format on its website. The regulator said any interested parties, including consumer groups, will be able to use the information to compare products and firms.

FCA director of strategy and competition Christopher Woolard said: “We believe that publishing a range of information will help to boost competition between firms, encouraging them to focus on improving the value and performance of their products, while giving stakeholders and consumers more insight into the value they offer.”

The scorecard pilot follows the FCA’s 2014 study of the general insurance add-ons market, which showed that competition was not working well for many consumers in this market.

In June 2015 the regulator proposed several options for publishing product information, including:

• claims ratio as a stand-alone value measure;
• claims ratio plus claims acceptance rates; and
• claims acceptance rates, claims frequencies and average claims pay-outs (the scorecard).

During the 12 months there will be two publications of data – one at the start and one at the end of the pilot. The FCA said this will inform and help it refine any proposals that it may consult on. It will also provide further insight into the expected costs and benefits, the regulator added.