The latest from LN, who have sharpened up their toolkit yet again;
U.K. motor insurance providers can now identify at speed, at the point of quote, those cancellations and gaps in cover that occurred during the national COVID-19 lockdowns, versus those outside of that time. LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a leading provider of insurance data and analytics, is offering new COVID-19 data attributes as an optional enhancement, free of charge on its LexisNexis® Policy Insights solution for insurance providers to use as part of their risk assessment.
The new data attributes will help ensure that those individuals who chose to cancel their motor insurance or allowed their insurance to lapse during the COVID-19 lockdown period are priced more fairly when they next shop for insurance, renew their policy or make a mid-term adjustment.
Overall, Policy Insights is a powerful tool that helps predict motor claims losses and assist insurance providers to understand the risk of an individual based on their policy behaviour, including risks associated with customers who cancel their policies or have gaps in cover. The solution is built from market contributions to the LexisNexis® Motor Policy History database, which have been sourced over the past six years from over 85% of the market.
James Burton, senior director, product management, for LexisNexis Risk Solutions said: “There are many factors at play that insurance providers will want to be sensitive to – a fall in household incomes, reluctance to use public transport, working from home, and further local lockdowns, as opposed to lack of responsibility in paying bills and generally risky behaviour. Creating these new COVID-19 attributes has therefore been a key priority to give motor insurance providers valuable context for policy gaps or cancellations. It will help them easily and clearly define lockdown-led decisions by policyholders within the quote process to support fair pricing when they next apply for motor insurance.”
“Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic led to a global reduction in the overall number of insurance claims, the number of fraudulent motor claims increased by 50% in 2020 compared to 2019. This further demonstrates the importance of insurers having information about cancellations and gap in cover at a granular level in order to conduct their own investigations and price accurately,” said Burton.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions is also able to identify key trends in driving behaviour during the national lockdowns of 2020. In the first quarter of the year, the number of trips on the road drastically reduced, and in February 2020 vs 2021, the number of trips at a geospatial level dropped on average between 60-90%.
Although there was overall less activity on U.K. roads, there was a sharp increase in the number of vehicles speeding, across all road types such as urban, city or country, but a decrease in extreme braking and acceleration. This correlates to a sharp increase in fatalities on U.K. roads during the periods when 2020 lockdown restrictions were lifted. Whilst the latest industry figures show a reduction in overall road fatalities from January to June last year, the insight from LexisNexis Risk Solutions echoes the concerns of insurance providers that these lockdown-related driving behaviours could be transitioned into the post-pandemic world.
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