Insurers are being encouraged to take advantage of new EU legislation that allows companies to use customers' financial information to construct new products. The European Commission has said it will investigate whether the UK government is in breach of its obligations under data protection laws after a report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that insurers were using The information could help insurers to develop more specific, targeted financial products for customers as well as disintermediating the industry.
Insurers are being encouraged to take advantage of new EU legislation that allows companies to use customers' financial information to construct new products. The Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which is now in force, could have a significant impact on the sector, giving third-party providers the ability to access bank accounts and transaction information through an application programme interface (API), rather than restricting access to banks. The information could help insurers to develop more specific, targeted financial products for customers as well as disintermediating the industry.