Strategy will initially focus on private motor business, before moving to household insurance
Fortis is to enter the aggregator market as it moves into the next stage of its digital distribution strategy.
Fortis is set to launch white-labelled aggregator propositions for brokers and corporate partners.
It will initially focus on private motor business, with household insurance to follow.
The move into the aggregator market follows the acquisition of a majority stake in online aggregator specialist Insuretech Systems.
Barry Smith, Fortis chief exec-utive, said the acquisition was a key move in expanding its online distribution capabilities and would expand its offering to corporate partners.
It would also allow brokers to access new markets by using Fortis to set up an online aggregator branded in their own name.
The insurer has also moved Outright managing director Andy Lee to the new role of director of digital strategy at Fortis.
Recent months have seen a boom in the number of insurance aggregators, with Tescocompare.com being the most high profile launch.
Smith denied that Fortis’s move was a knee-jerk reaction to this surge of interest.
He said: “We acquired Insuretech in December [2006] so we made the decision to buy it 12 months before that. The purchase was linked to offering more services and solutions to customer.”
Fortis has kept the Insuretech acquisition under wraps since the deal was completed.
“The addition of Insuretech into our multi-distribution offering complements the channels and capabilities we already provide and is another example of our commitment to helping our partners’ customers to buy insurance through their preferred method.”
Andrew Willis, Insuretech executive director, said: “The digital channel is becoming increasingly important.
“Statistics are showing that sales over the internet came to £103bn in 2005, providing affinity groups and intermediaries with a huge opportunity to access a new generation of customers.”
