BIBA partners with Marmalade for young driver insurance

BIBA, the organisation representing the UK's 2,000 general insurance intermediaries, has launched a new telematics insurance partnership with Marmalade (itself a BIBA member) for young drivers.  

The product is essentially an enhanced version of Marmalade's own "New Driver" policy and seeks to take advantage of the growing market share of telematics products. Marmalade products are currently underwritten by Allianz and Zenith Insurance. 

Marmalade is a long-established player in the "young driver" market and has also sought to distribute its products through other partnerships; most notably with a number of driving instructors, including BSM and RED Driving Schools. It has previously worked with Ford and Kwik-Fit Insurance. 

Sainsbury's re-enters mortgage market with L&G and London & Country

Sainsbury's Bank has partnered with London and Country (L&C) and Legal and General Mortgage Club (L&G) to re-enter the mortgage market, after an absence of over 12 years. Sainsbury's previously offered mortgages when its bank was jointly owned with Bank of Scotland. 

The mortgages will be available direct to Sainsbury's customers and through intermediary pilot partners such as L&C. The partnerships are essentially the means for Sainsbury's Bank to offer its products through the mortgage intermediary market rather than traditional "affinity" relationships. It is expected that a number of other mortgage brokers will be used to bolster distribution in the next 12 months. 

Sainsbury's Bank has also suggested that one of its USPs, will be that customers will benefit from shopping rewards through its Nectar loyalty programme. 

Direct Line secures partnership with Tesla (and Nationwide update)

Direct Line has announced a car insurance partnership with Tesla Cars, as part of a wider initiative into advanced technology and driver aids. The partnership has not been arranged through Direct Line Group's (DLG) partnership business - "Brand Partners" - and appears to be an "introducer only" relationship. Current estimates suggest there are over 2,000 Tesla vehicles in the UK, but the brand is experiencing strong growth. 

DLG currently has more traditional motor manufacturer partnerships with Peugeot and Citroen and at its 2016 results presentation (7th March 2017), DLG also announced that the length of these partnerships had been extended.

A more significant announcement was also made in the results presentation regarding DLG's household insurance partnership with Nationwide Building Society. This had been expected to move to RSA in February 2017 (see our post dated 17th December 2015), but to date this has not happened and DLG announced that "Nationwide termination date [is] currently being reviewed and may result in a later migration." 

No additional details were provided.   

O2 breaks new ground with Junction partnership

Mobile network operator O2, has recently entered the car insurance market through its partnership with Junction Insurance. It has launched its O2 Drive Mobile App and 2 main propositions - "O2 Drive" and "O2 Drive - Box on Board". The latter uses telematics technology and is squarely aimed at younger drivers. 

The application is an early attempt to harness "Internet of Things" technology, and will use data to encourage safer driving and discounts on insurance premiums. The app is also linked to a range of linked services - motor breakdown, car servicing and maintenance - as well as other discounts and offers already available to other O2 customers.   

The cover is underwritten by Junction's car insurance panel and O2 claims that additional discounts may also be available to customers based on their length of relationship with O2, payment history and type of device. 

For many years, insurance providers have wondered how to develop proportions which might appeal to the technology giants and their massive customer bases. Even though the O2 offerings may not be particularly original, the partnership represents something of a coup for Junction and is likely to be repeated by other technology brands and insurers. 

O2 continues to offer "mobile insurance" underwritten by Telefónica Insurance.

Sun Life replaces Brightside with Junction

Sun Life has announced a new 5-year general insurance partnership with Junction, BGL's specialist affinity arm. The partnership will commence in March 2017 with home insurance, followed in June with motor insurance. Sun Life has already suggested an interest in travel and other lifestyle covers. 

One interesting aspect is that the partnership replaces Sun Life's previous "5-year partnership" (household only) with Brightside Insurance, which was announced as recently as October 2015 (see our post dated 22nd October 2015 for details)! This suggests that the Brightside relationship was not on target to help Sun Life achieve its ambitious target of quarter of a million GI customers within 4 years. 

Sun Life continues to work with BDML Connect for pet insurance (see our post dated 30th September 2015), Golden Charter for funeral plans and Hugh James for will writing. 

Junction remains one of the UK's largest affinity providers and as well as its longstanding partnerships with the Post Office, Santander and M&S, it has recently announced a new car insurance scheme, aimed at young drivers, with mobile brand O2. 

L&G partners with Coventry Building Society

Legal & General has announced a new 5-year household insurance partnership with Coventry Building Society; the UK's 3rd largest. The deal is expected to be worth in the region of £25 million GWP, given that the Coventry is the 2nd largest society when ranked by all-important borrowing members. 

The partnership, covering home and landlord insurance, commences in January 2017 and follows L&G's other recent lender partnerships with Principality and Skipton building societies (see our posts dated 9th November 2015 and 13th October 2016 respectively). 

The loss of Coventry represents another major blow for A.J. Gallagher. The broker had previously lost the Skipton partnership to L&G and this now leaves Gallagher's with only a handful of relatively small societies in this sector and no obvious replacements of this scale. 

Many of L&G's other lender partnerships involve protection products, but unusually for a building society, Coventry does not currently have a partner in this area.