18/06/2009 by admin.

I’ve just attended a long and to be perfectly frank boring conference concerning the  protection market.

Every speaker was presumably provided with a “business lingo bingo card” and made solid attempts to be the first to shout BINGO!

I’ve always thought that speakers at conferences generally have something either new, revealing or relevant to say..alas, not this conference. This got me thinking, what is the point of these conferences? Is it the networking opportunity it offers? or the ability to illustrate who can produce the best powerpoint slides?!

I would much rather see fewer conferences, and more attention given to what the speakers have to say.

enough said….next under the cosh will probably be blogs!! 

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25/05/2009 by admin.

I was watching television recently and one of the advertisements was an advert by Renault. Nothing particularly strange in that, but what nearly made me spill my cup of tea was the fact ”the promotion or inducement” offered to consumers to purchase a new car, wasn’t so much the scrappage scheme incentive, but free PPI for 12 months. Yup, PPI was advertised as a ‘positive’ benefit for customers.

 I haven’t seen anyone talk up the benefit of PPI for years and to see it is great news, but to see it as part of an expensive TV advertising campaign left me gob-smacked. Well done to Renault and Cardif Pinnacle for this, the best bit of news I’ve heard in a long time.

Why the excitement? Well, PPI has been so maligned in recent years, and with a number of providers removing themselves from the market, the doomsayers believe PPI will disappear from the protection landscape. What Renault and Cardif Pinnacle have done,  is provide the sense that the worst may be over and the market gains some certainty and balance.

I’m off to watch the adverts again!   

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17/05/2009 by admin.

Feeling rather like a Daily Telegraph reporter reviewing 1 million plus MP receipts, we’ve just completed the finishing touches to our own indepth analysis of the PPI market.

It is striking to reflect on the changes we’ve witnessed over the past couple of years. In terms of market share, we now have a clear picture of the winners and losers in the UK PPI market and also we now can deduce which insurers look likely to take advantage of the new regulatory climate.

If you want to review our analysis, please contact us at subscribe@ppi-insight.co.uk for more information. Sales pitch over! 

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12/05/2009 by admin.

Periodically, we here at PPI Insight, undertake  mammoth reviews of the PPI market.  Generally this involves lots of late nights, sub prime coffee and BBC News 24 to fill the sound void, and the terms and conditions of close to 150 PPI policies.

We do this as we’ve come to learn that this approach can often highlight emerging trends in a way that the traditional policy reviews we undertake do not.

We’re now in the middle of crunching the data we’ve reviewed and although its early days we think there are the signs of some pretty substantial changes to the PPI market. In particular, the relative market share of PPI underwriters seems to be changing.

Also, after years of talking about what the next generation PPI product would look like, the dust is beginning to settle and providers are starting to nail their colours to the mast (in other words, we’re starting to get a picture of the product solutions PPI providers are using to replace traditional single premium PPI).

Fascinating stuff! 

For those of you who subscribe to PPI Insight, you’ll get the full low down next month.

Some interesting  

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06/05/2009 by admin.

We recently posted  a short survey on the website that set out to understand what the market thinks is going to happen with the launch of a debt freeze product in the UK.

The respondents (thank you!) certainly weren’t of a volume to please a Mori poll, but a little data is often better than no data.

We found that in the main, respondents were either dismissive of the role debt freeze may play in the ‘gap’ left by PPI or were maintaining a watching brief on market developments.

I think we can now safely say that the future of the credit protection market will have broadly 4 outcomes (1) regular premium PPI (2) IP and MPPI hybrid (3) debt freeze and (4) withdrawl from the market.

Of course there is a potential (5) if Barclays and other insurers (I know of 2 others who have appealed the findings but haven’t publicly stated that they are appealing against The Co.Co’s remedies )   mount a detailed defense….who knows!

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25/03/2009 by admin.

I recently had cause to consider the insurance industry from the point of view of a consumer making a claim (……and no this wasn’t for PPI! it was for a commercial B & C emergency).

I couldn’t fault the service the claim handler offered and the speed at which they dealt with the claim.

The one blip in the process was the hassle and stress in initially contacting the insurer, and the constant referral from one part of the insurance company to another.

Its always been the general consensus that at the claims stage, if the claim is paid, then that ensures a happy customer. I think consumers’ needs are evolving and the payment of a claim is increasingly seen as an expected result. What differentiates therefore at this stage is how easy it is for the consumer to make the claim.

In my case, as happy as I was with the claims handler, the episode that preceded their involvement was stressful enough for me to look elsewhere when my insurance is up for renewal.

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09/03/2009 by admin.

Barclaycard has recently announced it is to launch, or rather re-launch its debt freeze product that is offered to customers who hold a ‘Sky’ credit card.

I telephoned Barclaycard to get a sense of what the product covers and how it works and was surprised to be told that they do not believe debt freeze to be an insurance product.

Now technically speaking, debt freeze hasn’t been formally classified in the UK as an insurance product, however, given the products objective is to assist customers if they are unable to meet their credit repayments and customers pay a premium to protect themselves should this happen, I’m not sure how this position is viable in the long term without modification, indeed I’ve just checked the definition of insurance from the dictionary - here it is

 ”The act of insuring, or assuring, against loss or damage by a contingent event; a contract whereby, for a stipulated consideration, called premium, one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by certain specified risks.” …. seems to me that this is a fair reflection of debt freeze!

If that is the case then debt freeze will be forced to go the same route as PPI and the 7 day ban on sales, however I guess in the short term its an opportunity for firms to generate income, protect consumers and imcrease their knowledge of ”what works well” for stakeholders. 

Who knows maybe this or a similar product will be a long term solution to the PPI market’s woes.

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25/02/2009 by admin.

Over the past 3 years the UK has benefited from low interest rates and therefore,  low priced personal loans, credit card, and mortgage products. 

Now we have just moved out of the ’start’ of the recession, we have much lower interest rates yet APR’s offered on personal loans and credit cards have, on average increased by 50% from the low point.

Now, read any article by an analyst in the press and you’ll hear statements about banks needing to “conserve cash” and rebuild their “balance sheet”.

This is all fine for those banks who haven’t taken taxpayer money to do precisely the same thing.  However, how on earth we are now in the position where (a) banks have been bailed out, (b) credit prices are being increased dramatically and (c) even now, businesses and consumers are being denied access to credit is beyond me.

It strikes me that the banks are not able to change from this tack and some central banking leadership is required to deliver change or at least lay out the road map of what is likely to happen.

Rant over!

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16/02/2009 by admin.

Ever since the recent long, drawn out investigation into the PPI market commenced 3 years ago, I’ve felt pretty bad for the Mortgage PPI sector of the market.

Generally sold as an integral part of the mortgage sales process, offering a monthly premium, with good coverage, I’ve scratched my head to try to deduce why, despite FSA comments saying the MPPI market is performing well, MPPI was still included in The Comp Commission final report.

Firms in that market have every right to feel aggrieved and as I have been saying for a long time, the fact the industry couldn’t come together as one body to lobby the regulatory bodies reflects badly on all of us in the market, as I do believe “one voice” would have helped our cause immensely.

What i really hope now is that the IP brigade (who are well organised) don’t trample on the value MPPI propositions provide to consumers. It won’t be easy but is definitely do-able. Check out February’s PPI Insight for an example of how MPPI and IP can work together for the good of consumers. 

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29/01/2009 by admin.

The Competition Commission has just released its final report into the PPI market.

On the face of it, this makes grim reading.

1. The sale of PPI is banned until 7 days after the sale of any credit product.
2. Single premium PPI is banned for good.
3. A new raft of customer commnications are required for all sales of PPI.
4. Oh yes, and all of this to be delivered by the end of 2010!

Whilst a Government minister has been made to look foolish saying they can see “the green shoots of recovery” with the UK economy…… I’m feeling pretty confident, at last we now seem to be at the bottom of the trough.  At least now, firms can plan their future’s with some certainty and that is of some comfort.

I do find it annoying that firms will have to advertise the cost of PPI per £100 benefit as this often results in a hunt for the lowest price rather than looking at the most suitable product and coverage a product offers.  

 On the positive side, the current economic conditions will at least do something to put the need for protection at the forefront of consumers thinking.

My mantra is “there is a need for PPI in the protection market”.

This closes a chapter in the life of PPI, a chapter that provided some real highs and more recently some lows. Lets look forward to the new chapter and try to shape a solution to a customer need that means we won’t have to go through the recent regulatory attention and reprimand again.

Onwards and upwards!

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