FSA dissatisfied with insurance comparison websites

by Gill Montia

Story link: FSA dissatisfied with insurance comparison websites

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has completed a review of insurance comparison websites and concluded that some are misleading consumers by not providing clear and accurate information.

In its report, the regulator states that only a small number of insurance sites provide a full list of policy features and that in the majority of cases, consumers were not prompted to consider anything other than price in making their selection.

Where a site did draw attention to policy features, the details were often contained in the small print of terms and conditions.

Excess levels on policies were not made clear on a number of sites and in some cases information was incorrect or out-of-date.

The FSA has been keeping tabs on insurance comparison sites over the past two years and its latest review is based on an assessment of 17 sites.

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association has made similar criticisms of the websites and both Defaqto and the Centre for Competition Policy have raised concerns over levels of accuracy and disclosure of policy features.

The FSA will be following up its study with visits to some of the companies that operate the sites. It has also drawn up a list of good practice guidelines.

Last year, around 30 million insurance quotes were obtained from comparison websites.