With the coronavirus (Covid-19) putting a halt on most things you’d be forgiven for thinking that not many schemes would’ve enjoyed any positive or exponential growth recently.
You’d be somewhat correct in that assertion. According to our Premium Index that we released this month, which compares data for April 2020 from the same period last year, policy volumes fell across the board for most lines.
Employers’ liability schemes saw the biggest fall at 80%, caravan & trailer dropped 70% and legal expenses saw a 77% decline.
But if you thought that all lines were affected like this – you’d be wrong.
Our index, which covers 29 separate lines of insurance on the SchemeServe platform that currently manages £240m in gross written premium (GWP), shows that cyber enjoyed the biggest increase with sales up a whopping 340%, followed by residential property owners with a 104% hike and mobile phone insurance which saw a spike of 95%.
But these are not the only schemes that are bound to see an increase in business in the future. Lives have been affected in various ways but if any of the trends emanating from the Covid-19 pandemic are to go by we’re likely to embrace greener forms of transport as well as work more from home.
Therefore, it’s highly likely that we’ll see more high growth in areas such as cycle schemes and cyber insurance as more companies and employees will want to protect their equipment and confidential data from hackers.
Hackers will, after all, consider it an opportunity that more people are working from home and not under the watchful eye and support of their IT departments.
Meanwhile, cycle schemes will simply see an increase in sales as more of us shun the use of cars and public transport to get to and from work. Business in this area is booming in the UK but globally too.
According to an article in Forbes there are currently no audited bicycle sales statistics available in the UK. However, there is other evidence of success that we can draw on.
Individual bike shops, which track their own sales figures, are reporting a jump in sales while the likes of Halfords have reported a 23% increase in their share price since lockdown began on the 23 March.
If you want to start up a new scheme, especially in one of the areas that are destined to see huge growth in the future, it’s possible to get up and running easily.
We offer an agile platform for operating delegated authority schemes. We can get schemes up and running in a matter of days and make any updates (rate changes, new regulations or new products) quickly and securely.
It’s worth paying attention to the unfolding trends. Because it’s clear that in a post-pandemic world those that are likely to survive will do so by adapting to the environment and the needs of the end customer.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
