Tesco Bank launches "young driver" insurance with Insure the Box

Tesco Bank has introduced a new "pay-as-you drive" motor insurance policy for 17-25 year olds. Its new "Tesco Bank Box Insurance" policy uses telematics technology fitted into the car and which enables key behaviours to be monitored and assessed. 

The new policy is administered by Insure the Box, which has already sold over 200,000 policies, and is underwritten by Catlin and Great Lakes Reinsurance. 

The use of telematics is growing rapidly but this is one of the first "affinity branded" partnerships in this market. Interestingly, Tesco Bank has chosen to partner with Insure the Box, rather than with its joint venture insurer partner Ageas, which also backs Ingenie; another significant telematics player in the young-driver market.

Equity and Costco launch SME insurance partnership

Equity Insurance Partnerships (EIP) has announced the launch of a new partnership with Costco Wholesale, to offer van insurance to its core SME customers in the UK. The proposition includes a substitute vehicle as standard and additional covers such as tools and excess protection. 

Marketing of the new partnership will take place through Costco warehouses as well as online and through Costco's member magazine and "coupon book". 

No details have been provided of the length of the partnership at this stage. The van insurance deal with EIP supplements existing Costco Wholesale partnerships with American Express for credit cards and travel insurance and WPA for health and dental plans. 

Friends Life partners with Key Retirement Solutions for annuity service

Friends Life has announced a partnership with Key Retirement Solutions, to offer its pension customers, without an adviser, access to a market-wide "open market option" (OMO) service. This will allow customers to shop around for the best annuity rates, taking into account lifestyle and health factors. 

A pilot of the service is expected to launch in the next few months and follows a "thorough process" to select a new partner. The service is available to individual Friends Life customers and and those within corporate schemes run by the insurer, where no adviser exists. 

On the same day as this announcement, workplace pensions provider, Now: Pensions has also said that it will be launching a similar OMO service with Annuity Direct.