Santander’s GI provider was Select & Protect who in a possibly unrelated move made the majority of their sales team redundant around the same time, sending a message to the intermediary space that they were no longer open for business.
More change at Towergate
As I predicted in my comment last month that Towergate assets were likely to be sold the firm recently announced the sale of Towergate financial group which owns John Charcoal for £8.4m to a private equity group. At the same time they confirmed the appointment of a new CEO for another of Towergate’s businesses, Paymentshield, Steve Wood who has joined the firm from Ecclesiastical after eight years where he was MD Towergate confirmed that this was part of its ongoing restructure so no doubt more changes on the way.
FCA add-on removal
The FCA have published proposals to ban the automatic inclusion of certain add-ons where the client has to opt-out. The ban would apply to any add-on sales of regulated or unregulated products offered alongside a primary financial product including products like, legal expenses, sold alongside a home insurance policy, breakdown or key cover sold with motor insurance or protection cover with credit cards. The regulator is seeking to ban the use of opt-outs where this type of cover is automatically included. What is surprising is that the regulators own research in 2014 not only highlighted that there was no real abuse but that many consumers actually welcomed the inclusion of some of these add-ons, nevertheless there seems to be an appetite to press on with an outright ban anyway.
Competitive edge
LV Broker published some research this month which highlighted the fact that the GI market place, especially for home insurance was becoming increasingly diverse and highly competitive.
Insurers rates are keener than ever as they scramble for market share in light of strong results in the face of lower claim levels. In an increasingly competitive market brokers have a significant role to play on helping their clients navigate these increasingly choppy waters.
