Brightside expects more motor capacity in 2013

Brightside expects more competitive motor capacity to become available in 2013 following its capacity deals with Markerstudy and Ageas last year.

The broking group made the comment in a trading update ahead of the release of its full-year 2012 results, which it says will show record growth in turnover and profitability. The broker reported a 5% increase in total policy sales and a 12% increase in annual policy sales.

Brightside launched an underwriting facility for its eCar online car product backed by Markerstudy capacity in October 2012. It followed this up with a similar Ageas-backed facility in December 2012.

The broker said the two new facilities supported eCar’s 13% growth in annual policy sales in 2012.  It said the facilities accounted for 32% of eCar policy sales and 30% of eCar premium written in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The trading update said: “Further competitively priced capacity is expected to be launched in H1 2013 when credit scoring is added to the group’s policy validation suite.”

Brightside added that it entered new affinity partnerships in 2012, which delivered 23,910 policies in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company expects these partnerships to continue to boost policy volume.  

Brightside’s annual policy sales for 2012 were 400,210, up 12% on the 357,261 policies it sold in 2011. This was mainly driven by eCar’s 13% increase, backed up by an 84% boost in personal lines policies (see table below).

However the growth in sales of annual policies was offset by falls in the sales of shorter-term policies and exited lines such as life insurance, resulting in an overall policy sales increase of 5% to 465,726 from 444,189.