Central Bank to create insurer quality rankings - Shvetsov
ST. PETERSBURG. June 6 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of Russia plans to create insurance company rankings based on the quality of their operations, Central Bank First Deputy Sergei Shvetsov said during the International Insurance Summit.
"Today we are talking with you about digitization, including digitization of the insurance industry, meaning that every insurance company is getting closer to the consumer and the consumer will pay attention to the quality of this company's operations. The Central Bank plans to create a ranking of the quality of work of insurance companies in order to give consumers the ability to know the assessment of this insurance company's consumer-friendliness. In many instances, a choice will be made not just on price, but on quality, based on this indicator," he said.
"The fundamental decision on this score has been made, but the methodology needs a certain amount of refinement," the head of the Central Bank's Service for Protecting Consumer Rights and Ensuring Access to Financial Service Mikhail Mamuta told journalists.
The Central Bank will begin developing the methodology for ranking insurers this year and hopefully the ranking can be carried out in 2019, he said.
"We are carefully analyzing the experience in a number of countries, including Portugal and the UK. It is somewhat similar since the basis is the same: a certain ratio (number) of complaints at a company to the number of policies that company has. This is a certain basis. But many different aspects can be built on this basis," he said, adding that in creating the rankings, the experience of other Russian state bodies on creation of digital projects will be utilized.
The venue for publishing the rankings has not been chosen yet.
"In a number of countries the regulator publishes this; in others this is a separate website. For us, an authorized financial institution might entirely suit for this purpose," Mamuta said.
"In global practice the ranking is disclosed for all markets: insurance, banking, micro-lending. But these countries have advanced a long way. Clearly, we are beginning in those segments where this will have the greatest social impact," he said.