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UK: Financial regulator to curb insurance bundling

By  |  March 11, 2014

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is set to crack down on automatic insurance purchases after a market investigation found more than $330 million in wasted spending every year.

The FCA is reportedly calling for a ban on automatic insurance product purchasing at point of sale. Concerns over the practice of automatically adding insurance packages when consumers buy products, including cars and mobile phones, were raised as the regulator called into question the requirement that consumers opt-out of that automatic insurance addition.

Reports say the FCA called the situation “a clear case for us to intervene.”

A market inquiry regarding the matter was first launched last July. The FCA subsequently found a lack of competition in the market as more than half of consumers did not shop around for alternative insurance packages when that insurance was automatically bundled with their purchases.

Full Content: The Guardian

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