Being boring has shielded the insurance industry for far too long

The insurance industry is the boring uncle of the financial services family – a little drab and likely to be found in a basement listening to Daniel O’Donnell on a Saturday night. By contrast, banking conjures up colourful images of Wolf of Wall Street excess, which has helped to fuel a healthy dose of scrutiny.

Being boring has shielded the insurance industry from its fair share of scrutiny for far too long. Issues have emerged that don’t receive the level of scrutiny they deserve.

Readers of this article will be all too familiar with freefalling savings rates. It’s a bitter pill, but we’ve swallowed it. Meanwhile, car insurance is clearly an outlier: 29 per cent of car insurance customers tell us at Smart Money People that they feel unfairly treated, and the reasons for this go well beyond soaring premiums.

So, what’s gone wrong?

Let’s start with our obsession with comparison sites. Across opera singers, little robots and cute meerkats, UK consumers are the heaviest users of financial comparison sites in the world, and car insurance is the jewel in the crown.