Despite a financial boom and soaring profits, Insurance Times’s research shows that RSA has more work to do if it wants to improve broker relationships
It’s been a long and torturous road for RSA in improving results.
The problems truly began six years again when a financial blackhole was found in the Irish accounts, with scandalous levels of reserving revealed in graphic detail by regulators.
The company has pretty much been on the backfoot ever since.
There was a time when RSA was considered an almost equal to Aviva in the UK - but after years of trimming back, it’s not even close.
At least today’s results, an impressive 93.6% combined ratio, show that RSA might have at last turned some kind of corner.
Boss Stephen Hester has delivered the medicine of cost-cutting, reducing premium and tightening underwriting.
RSA’s share price is up 2.7% this morning. All well and good.
None of this will be any comfort to brokers looking for better service.
Brokers will always use RSA because it’s big, competitive on commissions and a lot of business can stick.
But RSA could surely do so much better.
Our broker five star survey, the widest and largest in the UK, shows there is no escaping the reality.
RSA scores just two starts in both commercial lines and personal lines in our survey this year.
RSA is worst performer in personal lines and the third worst in commercial lines.
It’s not one singe area that is causing the problems.
Scores are low across claims, underwriting, coverage, relationship and policy.
This would suggest it’s a company-wide systemic issue rather than problems with any individual department.
RSA is miles adrift on service from Aviva, which scores five stars in commercial and four stars in personal lines.
This completely blows the idea out of the water that insurers are at a disdvantage against smaller competitors.
RSA can take encouragement from its improved financial results, but it needs to raise its game on brokers service.
They deserve better.
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