Friday 4 August 2017

Allianz and LV= joint venture: the impact on partnerships


Today's announcement of the joint venture being created by Allianz and the general insurance arm of LV=, has focused mainly on the scale of the new business and its position as the UK's 3rd largest personal insurer. 

The reports largely ignore the impact of the new venture for affinity partners of the two insurers and it may be worth looking at the current differences in their partnership strategies. 

For such a large insurer, Allianz has been largely absent from some partnerships' distribution, with the exception of pet, motor and some specialist covers. For motor partnerships, it has concentrated primarily on manufacturer schemes such as Ford and BMW Group (unusually, for BMW it also provides home and travel covers), but also others including Jaguar, Dacia, Kia and Mazda. The bulk of these schemes involves Allianz working with specialist administrators including Europa Group and Original Insurance. 

LV= has a long history of working in affinity distribution and currently partners with Unison (car), GMB (car) and Prospect (car and home). It also has one of the UK's longest affinity relationships and has worked with the CSMA since 1923. LV= also provides a number of life and protection partnerships which will not be part of the new venture. 

Partnerships are likely to represent a significant distribution channel for the new business, but it is questionable whether these will match the premium levels of Aviva, RSA, Ageas or UK Insurance. 

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