Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Insurance Sector: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John Quinlan:

I will come in here. The question concerns customer fairness. Pricing sophistication is trying to get the right price for the right risk. There is a secondary issue of new business versus renewal pricing. The theory behind this is that we are trying to do is stimulate competition and new business flows by offering a lower new business price. How is that fair for me as an existing customer? Over the course of my time as a customer with Aviva - we have an average policy duration of between five and seven years - he or she would expect to pay the identical amount, notwithstanding that he or she might have come in on a cheaper price point.

Can people tweak the system, as was done with fronting, by going back in and claiming to be a new business customer? Yes, that is possible. The level of that difference for us is 3%, on average. It can be higher or lower, depending on individual circumstances. It is something we are looking at. We have launched a big pilot in the UK. It is not really working as we thought it might and other companies have not followed suit. We await the findings of the FCA to see if this becomes mandatory. If that is the case, we will welcome that in this market because we will go-----

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