Virgin Money launches protection partnership with Friends Life...again

Virgin Money has announced the re-launch of a protection partnership with Friends Life, which is due to start in January 2014. This follows the launch of a similar partnership with Friends Provident as recently as September 2009. 

More information on the partnership is expected to follow, but cover will be available in-store (at the branches acquired from Northern Rock), online and over the phone. 

Virgin originally launched a protection partnership with Scottish Widows in 2006, which was marketed as "Cancer Cover" but which was criticised by some for its lack of coverage. 

Virgin Money continues to work with BDML for home and motor insurance, UK Insurance for pet insurance and Insure & Go (Mapfre) for travel insurance. 

M&S reappoints RSA for pet insurance

M&S has announced the renewal of its pet insurance partnership with RSA for a further 5 years. 

RSA has displayed a real appetite for pet insurance affinity deals in recent years; as demonstrated by its similar partnerships with John Lewis, Home Retail Group (Argos & Homebase) and Tesco.

M&S continues to partner with AXA for home and travel insurance and works with a Junction-led panel for car insurance. 

Sainsbury's Bank replaces AXA (and Capita) with Allianz for pet insurance

Sainsbury's Bank has announced a new partnership, set to launch in the autumn, with Allianz for its pet insurance products. The length of the deal has not yet been announced, but Sainsbury's has been active in this market since 1998. 

The decision is likely to come as a blow to AXA which currently partners with Sainsbury's Bank and for Thornside, the pet insurance arm of Capita Insurance Distribution. Since 2010, Thornside has been responsible for the sales, fulfilment and claims handling of the Sainsbury's  pet insurance partnership with AXA.

The partnership is another significant one for Allianz, which has recently secured the Ford motor insurance deal. UKI continues to partner with Sainsbury's Bank for home and motor insurance.    

Motability renews partnership with RSA...for 5 more years

RSA has renewed its long-running partnership with Motability Operations (the not-for-profit company which manages the Motability car scheme) for 5 more years, running from October 2013. The original partnership was announced in July 1998. 

This is arguably more of a commercial fleet scheme than a traditional "affinity" arrangement, but it does represent one of the UK's largest motor insurance partnerships and covers 600,000 disabled drivers. The Motability scheme is said to account for 6% of all new cars sold in the UK each year. Policies are generally provided on a 3-year basis, but will be re-priced every 6 months. 

The revised deal is on a quota share basis, with RSA retaining 20% of the premium and ceding the remainder to a captive insurer managed by Motability Operations. This is very unusual in an affinity deal, but the scheme had been making substantial losses in recent years and arguably also reflects the particular expertise of the partner.  

Ford to partner with Allianz - one of the worst kept secrets in the market!

It is understood that Ford has selected Allianz as its UK partner for its branded motor insurance, with effect from November 2013. Following a tender exercise, the rumour has been circulating within the market for a number of months that Royal & Sun Alliance will be replaced by Allianz. 

RSA has held the partnership since 2008; at which time it included the Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo brands. These have all since been sold by Ford and of these, RSA only now partners with Volvo.

Allianz benefits from being a major pan-European insurer, although it is understood that the new partnership will only cover the UK. In addition, it is already well-established in the UK motor manufacturer affinity sector, with its BMW and Volkswagen partnerships. 

A formal announcement has yet to be made about the new partnership and there are also suggestions that Ford will be using an intermediary to work alongside Allianz in the new arrangement. (Update 2015 - Europa Group provides a sales and administration service for the partnership. ABC and AXA added to the panel for annual car insurance.)  

Renault UK partners with Quindell for accident and claims management

Renault UK and Quindell have signed a new partnership which sees the outsourcer providing a range of accident management services for the car manufacturer across all its brands, for drivers of new and used vehicles.  

The 2 organisations have signed a "multi-year contract"; whereby Quindell will provide first notification of loss (FNOL), credit hire, repair and personal injury elements of the claims service to Renault UK. Quindell has been active in this area in the last 2 years with its acquisitions of Ai Claims and law firm, Silverbeck Rymer. 

Renault is one of many motor manufacturers that have chosen to remove accident and claims management services from their car insurance partners; in this case, Equity Direct Broking. Renault's GAP insurance product is underwritten by Cardif Pinnacle.