Businesses today operate in a world of ever-changing regulations with the insurance industry a perfect case in point. Companies already need to comply with rules such as the Financial Services Authority’s Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) initiative as well as ensuring the meet tightening solvency regulations.The new financial year will see a new regulation become law. On April 6, the Consumer...
The financial services industry is currently facing major issues when it comes to customer service. Following scandals such as the misselling of products such as Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) and major technology problems at RBS, consumer confidence is at an all time low. No wonder that an increasing number of customers are looking to take their business elsewhere.As part of its remit to prot...
A lot of people in the UK pick a bank in their teens and then stay with them for the rest of their days. They may grumble – and even seek compensation when miss-sold products such as Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), but generally changing is seen as an unnecessary hassle, particularly as what banks offer is viewed as pretty similar.However new research shows that customer patience is wear...
As they operate in a highly regulated environment, many banks and financial services companies have been wary of becoming involved in social media. There has been a real fear that a throwaway tweet could be seen as endorsing a product when it isn’t the right fit for a particular customer, leading to potential misselling claims and action by regulators.However when handled properly the benefi...
When it comes to poor customer service, companies selling financial products, from insurance to bank accounts never seem to be out of the news. Hot on the heels of record payouts for the misselling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), card and identity protection company CPP is being investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for ‘alleged failings in sales calls’.Against ...
Delivering excellent customer service is a central part of business today, whatever industry you are in. While sectors such as retail may be very visible when it comes to customer service initiatives, improving service can deliver huge benefits in other, more traditional, sectors such as insurance.The perfect example of this is Ageas Insurance Solutions (AIS), one of the UK’s leading persona...
The Virgin brand is known for doing things differently and for putting the customer first, whichever market it is operating in. So last week’s news that the UK government has sold Northern Rock to Virgin Money could potentially have a big impact on the banking market.Northern Rock will be rebranded as Virgin Money, with the company pledging to increase the number of branches it has and to ad...
Figures just released by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) show that the number of complaints made by consumers increased by 24% in the third quarter. 31,386 complaints were made to the FOS, which deals with issues escalated by consumers beyond their financial services provider, between July and September 2011.Commentators have highlighted factors such as the worsening economic situation for t...
This week the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) released its long-awaited report on reforming the banking system. It has two main aims - firstly to protect us all from potential future financial crises by splitting bank’s retail and investment arms but importantly to increase competition within the UK banking sector.In fact the report states that it wants a market where “ba...
Ageas Insurance Solutions (AIS) has won not one, but two, prestigious Financial Sector Technology (FST) Awards for its successful Ageas eStream service transformation project, powered by Eptica technology. Best Use of IT in Insurance and Best Use of CRM technology were both awarded to AIS in recognition of the way it has transformed its multichannel cus...