Legal & General is considering entering the pet insurance market.
L&G general insurance managing director Ian Viney said that the company was always looking for new opportunities.
"We are considering its suitability in terms of our customer base and its fit with other products in our range. It is at an early stage of development."
The pet insurance market is becoming increasingly popular, with over 60 insurers battling for prominence. It is currently worth over £160m a year.
Viney, who took over from John Castagno as managing director in January, told Insurance Times that his focus would be to achieve organic growth in both direct and intermediated business.
"During 2003 we have seen the continued integration of the Barclays general insurance business.
"We have scaled up our household claims centre in Birmingham in anticipation of strong business growth, and independent external research shows we have maintained excellent levels of customer satisfaction this period."
The system, due for launch at the beginning of 2004, will speed up the validation process and the identification of cases where more work needs to be done.
Head of technical services Ray Facer said that by capturing more information at first notification it would enable the claim to be passed to the appropriate people.
The system will link to external sources of data, such as the Cue database of previous claims histories. It will also incorporate a tracking facility to monitor the progress of claims.
