Adrian Furness speaks out about CMA reforms at Insurance Times roundtable event

Covéa Insurance Claims Director Adrian Furness, has been reinforcing his credentials as a passionate spokesperson and pioneer for improving the claims service offered by insurers, attending a recent round table event, facilitated by industry publisher, Insurance Times. The purpose of the event was to give companies, directly affected by the recent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rulings on the private motor insurance market, the opportunity to consider its impact.

The fact that credit hire vehicles, inflate the costs of claims, a cost that is ultimately met by customers who have to pay higher premiums, is not disputed. Adrian Furness fears that by failing to address this issue, the CMA has set a landscape that will encourage dubious behaviours and predicts that this will have an increasingly negative outcome both on motor claims costs and on the reputation of the industry.

He explains his concerns:

“As an industry, we should be doing more to discourage questionable practices that add cost and are damaging to the reputation of the industry. As a business, we are committed to the wider goal of improving the image of the industry and building trust with customers, unfortunately the CMA’s failure to tackle credit hire vehicles is a setback that we will have to work hard to overcome.”

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About Covéa Insurance

Covéa Insurance Plc is the UK underwriting business of leading French mutual insurance group Covéa (which includes the global reinsurer PartnerRe since July 2022). 

Covéa Insurance looks after the insurance needs of UK customers, across a range of product lines; delivering financial reassurance through its Standard & Poor’s ‘AA- stable’ rating, as a guaranteed subsidiary of Covéa.  

Covéa Insurance has a strong people and service ethos and holds ServiceMark accreditation with Distinction for its Personal Lines operation and its Commercial & HNW Claims teams, as well as Chartered Insurer status for its Commercial business. Covéa Insurance is signatory to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter and the insurance Inclusivity Pledge and has been named one of the top 75 employers in West Yorkshire & the Humber. In 2022 Covéa Insurance was named Insurer of the Year at the British Claims Awards and Personal Lines Insurer of the Year at the Insurance Times Awards.