Date: 7th February 2017
Author:

The report should be of particular interest to anyone who wishes to look beyond national borders to how policymakers in other EU countries are dealing with similar issues in the areas of life insurance, non-life products (property, accident and health insurance) and old-age provision. The reports looks at questions pertaining to premium income, consumer complaints and product-related trends, based on quantitative and qualitative data collected by EIOPA through surveys and on-site visits to the various national supervisory authorities, information provided by expert stakeholders, as well as through research publications and media reports. 

Life Insurance: Trends point to individual policyholders having increasingly more choice when it comes to products, but at the same time being more directly exposed to fluctuations in the capital markets. Adding to this worry are the increasing problems of comprehensibility of complex products and the lack of transparency of costs and charges for policyholders.

Non-life: The growing importance of internet sales and big data can be seen across the EU, bringing both positive and negative impacts for consumers. Thanks to information provided by providers and comparison websites, it has never been easier for consumers to compare and contrast products before concluding a contract, with digital product innovations enabling an increasingly individualized calculation of premiums in some sectors. This however makes consumer behavior trends increasingly transparent, calling into question whether collective risk equilibrium is the core concern of insurance companies. 

Occupational pensions: In this area, a new European-wide trend towards "defined contributions" can be observed, for which disbursements depend more or less completely on the success of the investment strategy of the occupational pension institutions. 

 

For the full article, please see the BdV blog here 

Read the full Consumer Trends Report 2016 here