ESG not yet important factor in UK brokers’ relationships with insurers

UK brokers appear to have limited knowledge of insurers’ ESG credentials and do not rate ESG as a factor when choosing to work with an insurer, according to a survey from data and analytics company GlobalData.

GlobalData’s 2023 UK Broker Insurance Survey found that when asked to select the best in class for the ESG theme, only 24.7% of respondents could name an insurer. Just under three-quarters (73.7%) said they did not know (1.7% actively chose ‘none’), while the leader, Aviva, received just 10.4% of total responses.

GlobaData said this suggests that ESG is not yet an important factor in their relationships with insurers. “ESG is a leading theme within the industry, for which brokers and insurers will need to have clear strategies to continue to attract customers, but it is not yet vital while completing partnerships,” said GlobalData.

Ben Carey-Evans, senior insurance analyst at GlobalData, said: “This level of uncertainty suggests that brokers do not consider ESG to be essential when working with insurers, as very few brokers are able to identify insurers who are strong in the area.”

When asked for factors behind choosing to work with an insurer, being strong in ESG received no responses. The top answers for this question were flexibility in underwriting cover (23.5%), claims service quality (19.9%), price of premiums (17.9%), the quality of the insurer’s product material (8.0%), and speed of response to queries/quotes (7.6%). GlobalData said this shows that day-to-day business concerns are still far more important than the more long-term ESG theme in the eyes of brokers.

Carey-Evans said: “It will be difficult for ESG to ever be as important to brokers as these immediate factors, but our data shows that any insurer still has a clear opportunity to establish itself as a leader. Brokers not being able to pick clear leaders within this critical theme suggests that anyone who prioritises it can stand out in the theme relatively quickly. The more innovation and progress that brokers see from insurers, the more likely they are to prioritise it as a factor in building relationships, especially as the theme is only going to grow in importance.”

Back to top button