An overview of the UK insurance market, with a technology focus, brought to you by the team at www.insurengine.com, cloud solution for the insurance industry.

1. 2012 REVIEW:
TECHNOLOGY AND INSURANCE
IN THE UK

2. JANUARY 2012
Aggregators race to telematics
motor insurance
Strong start to the year as
insurance aggregators
(comparethebox.com,
gocompare.com) in the UK are
trying to differentiate
themselves by adding telematics
motor insurance to their online
comparison offering.
Looking back, telematics will
turn out to be a constant theme
in 2012.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elbragon/5455327639/

3. FEBRUARY 2012
Cyber risk becomes high profile
As more and more business is
conducted online, insurers are
preparing products to cater for cyber
threats. This month QBE unveils their
“Cyber Response” product (For UK
businesses, 100m+ turn-over). They
join CyberRisk from Marsh,CyberEdge
from AIG and others.
This follows the EU Data Protection
Directive which was announced earlier
this year, as we move closer to what
will eventually be a mandatory data
breach disclosure.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/s_w_ellis/3877534599/

4. MARCH 2012
Google buys BeatThatQuote to
develop their UK insurance
offering
Google is increasing their online
insurance offering in the UK by
adding an aggregator: Surprise
surprise, when you enter “car
insurance” in google.co.uk their
offering is here, in first position,
at minimal costs to them.
Google can afford to play the
long game on this one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/4249731778/

5. APRIL 2012
Experian Fraud report out :
Insurance Fraud up 23%
Record-breaking year for fraud in
the UK is blamed on the
difficulties that people face in
the current economic climate.
Interestingly first-party fraud is
up, third-party fraud is down,
suggesting technology is
improving.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymous9000/4279510297/

6. MAY 2012
OFT refers motor insurance
market to Competition
Commission
The Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has
referred the motor insurance
market to Competition
Commission. The way the market
is structured means that costs
(repairs, courtesy cars) and
premiums are higher than they
should/could be. The estimated
cost across the industry is an
additional £255m.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/2225441940/

7. JUNE 2012
Hackers steal 6.5m Linkedin
passwords
Pretty much all of the UK
insurance professionals are on
Linkedin, and therefore
potentially affected. If you
haven’t changed your password
on Linkedin, do it now.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheilascarborough/6290003115/

8. JULY 2012
Insurers to access DVLA
database to fight fraud
The DVLA will start building a
platform funded by the
insurance industry to reduce
inaccurate declarations
regarding driving history. DVLA
will perform the check by asking
for the driving license number of
the (would be) insured.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beglendc/447917515/

9. AUGUST 2012
Aviva trials smartphone app
for car insurance telematics
In what is sure to be a growing
trend amongst insurers, Aviva
trials a smartphone app (ios and
android) scoring driver
behaviour (according to
acceleration, braking, etc..),
potentially giving premium
discounts for good drivers. The
main advantage over a black box
is that no installation is required,
making this a much more
accessible proposition.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steevithak/2522859451/

10. SEPTEMBER 2012
Summer floods hit insurers
hard
2012 was the wettest year on
record – As insurers face up to
£1b in claims, they are at
loggerhead with the
Government over the
replacement of Statement of
Principles
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinrp/697980923/

11. OCTOBER 2012
Solvency II implementation
date moved back
Prehaps not surprisingly the FSA
announced that Solvency II
requirements have been pushed
back again and will come into
effect one year later on the 1st
January 2014.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/5857331527/

12. NOVEMBER 2012
SSP/Aggregators under
hacker’s attack
The Software provider SSP was
forced to temporarily pause its
services on all insurance
aggregator sites (SSP is sitting
behind a few aggregators in the
UK such as confused.com,
gocompare.com and
Moneysupermarket.com) after
an attack on the integration
process with Google compare.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dasqfamily/1142424516/

13. DECEMBER 2012
EU Gender directive comes
into force
The rules that specify that
insurers cannot use gender as an
underwriting parameter came
into force on 21st December. The
impact on premiums is yet to be
seen (although signs are that
women’s premiums will go up
rather than men’s going down).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymous9000/4279510297/

14. www.insurengine.com
team@insurengine.com
+44 (0)1245 501 000
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymous9000/4279510297/