{"id":191608,"date":"2025-12-18T17:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/191608\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:49:09","slug":"uk-financial-watchdog-to-increase-scrutiny-of-home-and-travel-insurers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/191608\/","title":{"rendered":"UK financial watchdog to increase scrutiny of home and travel insurers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

The UK financial watchdog has vowed to step up efforts to prevent customers being treated poorly by home and travel insurers, including a review of how they outsource claims to third-party intermediaries.<\/p>\n

The Financial Conduct Authority on Thursday said<\/a> it was \u201cexpanding the significant work we had planned to improve standards in the home and travel insurance markets\u201d as it presented its formal response to a super-complaint submitted by Which?.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The consumer group accused the regulator<\/a> of tolerating poor customer service by insurers and taking insufficient action for \u201ctoo long\u201d. <\/p>\n

But the FCA<\/a> rejected these claims, saying it had \u201cacted quickly and proportionately to address issues with a range of tools\u201d.<\/p>\n

The watchdog revealed it had already taken enforcement and supervisory action against nine home and travel insurance providers, after an earlier review raised concerns about them. It stopped one company from doing business until its problems were fixed.<\/p>\n

The FCA said it would expand its review of how insurers<\/a> outsource claims to third-party intermediaries next year by looking into the way these outsourcers are paid and \u201chow firms manage any resulting conflicts\u201d.<\/p>\n

The regulator also plans a new analysis of how insurers sell home and travel insurance. This will include an examination of the price comparison websites that many consumers use to buy such products and how they present quality ratings and other information.<\/p>\n

Graeme Reynolds, director of competition and interim director of insurance at the FCA, told reporters that the work would lead to \u201csolutions to address some of the information shortages in the market\u201d including through greater use of artificial intelligence technology.<\/p>\n

Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said the group was \u201cpleased that the FCA has taken our concerns seriously\u201d. <\/p>\n

The actions \u201cmust be the first step towards fundamental reform to ensure these markets work better for consumers\u201d, said Concha, adding that Which? would \u201chold the regulator to account to ensure it acts with urgency\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FCA said 79 per cent of people who made an insurance claim were satisfied with how it was handled, but added that there was \u201croom for improvement \u2014 with three in 10 saying there isn\u2019t enough information to judge the quality of different policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

An earlier review of home and travel insurance completed by the FCA this year found \u201cexamples of poor oversight of outsourced claims handlers and insufficient monitoring of management information which could also be inadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The watchdog since said it had opened two enforcement investigations, commissioned independent reviews of three insurers\u2019 claims handling systems and controls and required three senior managers to commit to strengthen their systems and controls.<\/p>\n

Hannah Gurga, director-general of the Association of British Insurers, said the trade body looked \u201cforward to working closely with Which?, the FCA and wider industry to build on the progress already made, strengthen trust in our sector, and ensure people get the help they need when it matters most\u201d. <\/p>\n

Some consumer groups were not satisfied with the regulator\u2019s response to the super-complaint, a mechanism giving designated consumer groups the statutory power to raise issues they believe are damaging to customers.<\/p>\n

Fairer Finance head James Daley said the FCA\u2019s plans were \u201cunlikely to be sufficient to get to grips with the many and growing problems in this sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe insurance market is caught in a race to the bottom on price \u2014 leading to the hollowing out of products, as well as poorer claims experiences,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Lee Harris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-191608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}