Insurance firms affected by the FSA'sTreating Customers Fairly (TCF) regulationneed to have the right IT in place by the end of this month
if they are to avoid being penalised.
TCF rules that, by the end of December, insurers must be able to
demonstrate that they provide fair treatment to customers. It
covers services such as how they recommend products, provide
after-sales support and handle complaints.
"It will be fully embedded within business practice by the end
of December and businesses must ensure it is a permanent fixture in
their business models," said the FSA.
Firms
need to have the technology in place to ensure that the details
of all their sales are securely stored and archived and can be
found if required. This is so they can prove that customers were
given the best possible deal at the time the sale was made.
According to Pierre Audion Consultants (PAC) UK insurers are
facing increased regulatory pressures to control risks and reduce
the mistreatment of customers.
It said they will spend money on outsourcing and software to
help monitor customer satisfaction. Insurers will also spend money
on front office systems and CRM to improve the way they serve
customers.
In September last year
Endsleigh Insurance Services began implementing Microsoft
Sharepoint across its business to help it meet the TCF
requirements. The software helps the insurer search for archived
information to display that customers were given the best possible
deal available at the time.
Prudential has also invested in technology to help it adhere to
TCF compliance. Last year it bought software from Thunderhead to
enable it to manage customer communications across various channels
such as voice, mail and the web. This helped it provide consumers
with clear information before, during and after the point of
sale.
Standard Life has replaced legacy systems with up-to-date
software applications
to meet the regulation. It has built an Oracle datawarehouse to
produce accurate data. It then linked the datawarehouse to software
from Cognos, which retrieves information and presents it to
managers. The firm recently linked the datawarehouse to software
from Callidus to make the sales process more visible.