Highlights of 2006
Picture copyright of Bristol Evening Post
Green Flag
An annual campaign sponsored by Green Flag, Beep Beep! Day is a nationwide scheme led by road safety charity Brake, designed to teach under fives important lessons about road safety. Nurseries and pre-school groups hold road safety days to teach young children the vital skills for staying safe on the roads. The sponsorship also helps raise funds for Brake's crucial work supporting families bereaved or affected by a serious injury in a road traffic accident.
- RBS Insurance is the UK's No 2 general insurer.
- RBS Insurance is the UK's No 1 direct insurer, by both phone and internet, and No 1 in partnerships.
- RBS Insurance is the No 1 car insurance provider in the UK, and the No 2 home insurance provider in the UK.
- RBS Insurance has over 1.3 million car rescue policies sold through Direct Line, Churchill and Privilege and a further 3.7 million through partner brands.
- Following its acquisition in 2005, RBS insurance completed the integration of Tracker, the UK leader in stolen vehicle tracking.
- RBS Insurance is the No 2 travel insurance provider with 2.4 million policies and the No 2 pet insurance provider with 25% of the market.
- NIG now has 1.9 million policyholders including 1.4 million motor policyholders. It became the first insurer to offer a motor product for brokers on imarket, the e-commerce portal.
- RBS Insurance's international business is growing successfully. Sales of motor and related insurance in Spain, Italy and Germany have now reached more than 2 million policies.
- Total income of £5.7 billion in 2006 was achieved through a range of channels, with customers offered the choice of direct brands (Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege) and access through the bank branches (Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest), as well as through a range of partners.
- Over 50% of own-brand car business is sold over the internet, and RBS Insurance hosts car insurance websites for over 23 partner brands.
- Direct Line has the highest spontaneous customer brand awareness in both car and home, and Churchill has the second-highest awareness for car.
Churchill Challenge
In July 2006 Churchill – the famous nodding dog – took to the road with the “Challenge Churchill” campaign, urging people to challenge him to save money on their car and home insurance. The initiative has significantly increased unprompted awareness of the brand.
- Churchill's advertising campaign, Challenge Churchill, urged people to challenge Churchill to get them a better deal on their car and home insurance.
- Direct Line's Good Deal Better marketing campaign highlighted enhancements to its No Claims Discount on car insurance.
- In May, Direct Line announced the launch of enhanced home insurance, offering a 50% discount on contents insurance and free European annual family travel cover to new customers.
- RBS Insurance's partnership business, UKI Partnerships, introduced a seven-day free car insurance offer scheme for new car purchases across all its motor manufacturer partners. It also introduced a car insurance policy for Tesco Personal Finance, consistent with the Tesco Value range.
- After agreeing a new deal with Saab, UKI Partnerships now provides car insurance in the UK for seven of the top ten car manufacturers.
- UKI Partnerships signed a new contract with Nationwide to provide household insurance, extending the relationship, which already provides car insurance.
- Direct Line in Spain introduced faster claims management and improved customer communication.
- Direct Line Italy pays its insurance claims on average six days faster than the market, according to Italy's Insurance regulator. An annual price comparison produced by Quattro Route motoring magazine reported Direct Line to be the most competitive insurer in Italy.
- Direct Line in Germany continued to expand its product range, launching general legal protection and private third party liability insurance.
- RBS Insurance handles more than 35 million calls for its own brands and partnership brands every year through its UK call centres.
- RBS Insurance has the largest motor claims operation in the UK, providing scale and efficiency benefits.
- As a result of development in 2006, our UK Assistance Accident Repair Centre in Heywood became one of the first bodyshops in the industry to achieve the Thatcham BSI (British Standards Industry) Kitemark accreditation, a new industry quality standard.
- RBS Insurance has played an important role in helping the Insurance Fraud Bureau disrupt organised cross-industry fraud, and a number of successful investigations have resulted in many arrests.
© 2007