Gender directive could catch brokers out – Consumer Intelligence

Brokers risk falling foul of the EU Gender Directive if their panel of insurers is not charging gender neutral pricing, warns customer service benchmarking firm Consumer Intelligence.

The directive, which comes into force tomorrow, prevents insurance providers for basing insurance premiums on the sex of the policyholder. From tomorrow, all insurance pricing must be gender-neutral.

But brokers offering cover from a variety of insurers could be caught out if the different companies on their panel are charging differential pricing.

Consumer Intelligence chief executive Ian Hughes said: “Gender neutrality is relatively easy for insurers but for brokers who are reliant on their insurer panels it could be a real problem. We would strongly recommend that they rigorously test their pricing engines.”

Hughes added that there were two main areas of concern for brokers. “Clearly there is an FSA compliance issue: can you prove that you are gender neutral? The second is that this makes for an interesting media story. You can just see Anne Robinson picking this up.”

Consumer Intelligence has found instances where quotes for business that renews after the gender directive are not gender neutral.

According to data that he firm collected on 19 December, One insurer on a broker’s panel was quoting £1,913 for a woman driver, while another was quoting £2,255 for a man with the same age and risk profile.

In another example, one panel insurer was quoting £1,901 for a woman while another was quoting £2,389 for the equivalent man.

Hughes said of the pricing differences: “It could be one of two things: that the pricing is not gender-neutral or the quotability is not gender-neutral. Both have to be gender-neutral and it is those two things together that are the real challenge.”

He added: “The broker may not be at fault, but it is the one offering the prices and therefore it is the one legally responsible.”