The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) believes its work in the travel insurance sector should be rated about “six or seven out of 10” so far.
It also argued that work to ensure travel insurance providers refer customers rejected due to a medical condition to an alternative firm has resulted in around 21,000 more policies being sold.
This is according to David Geale, executive director for payments and digital finance at the FCA and managing director of the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) (pictured).
Geale was providing evidence to the Financial Services Regulation Committee at the House of Lords as part of its Consumer Market Inquiry this morning.
Travel insurance referrals
When asked to give the FCA marks out of 10 for being an effective regulator for home and travel insurance, Geale said he would not claim the FCA’s work was done, but it had taken a number of steps to tackle issues affecting these sectors.
“If I take for example travel insurance, and I look at the issue where people are struggling to get insurance where they have medical claims or medical specific conditions,” Geale said.
“We’ve taken some steps already working with firms requiring them to refer people to a directory [when] they cannot provide insurance themselves.
“And we believe that has contributed to around 21,000 more policies being sold.”
More work to do
Though Geale conceded there was more work to be done.
“We know what the issues are,” he continued.
“We’ve set out what our priorities will be, but we’re not all the way yet.
“I would like to think that with the ongoing work, we’re at the six to seven out of 10 mark… but it takes time to deliver the outcomes and it’s outcomes that we’re interested in.”