Ms Derville Rowland:

The Data Protection Commissioner is the relevant commissioner. If issues arise in that context, we will, as we would with anybody, refer them issues to the commissioner. This is a big issue that extends well beyond financial services. It has a major impact on competition and is a serious data issue. It is a very serious conversation for the citizens of any country to understand when they click on links on the Internet. There is an ability to analyse and predict behaviour with behavioural economics; therefore, people must understand on a broad scale what can be done with information. We set up a behavioural economics unit in the Central Bank this year and it is examining these matters. It will support us in our policy and thinking about what modern interventions need to be made in dealing with what we call "evil nudges" or "positive nudges".

We want customers to act in their own best interests, which is why we made the policy improvement of giving customers information on the previous year's premium. It has been tested in the field and seen to have had two very powerful effects. The first is that when people who might not normally seek a better price see the previous year's figure, they change their behaviour and obtain a quote to see if they can do better. It also has an impact on the pricing of firms as they are now conscious that they must communicate previous prices to customers. It can have a very powerful cash saving effect for customers. These policy interventions are required. We will review the consumer protection code in a fundamental way next year. We are thinking about digitisation and innovation as part of the way the code needs to be constructed.