Impact of COVID-19 on Personal Lines Insurance: Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour in Selected Global Markets

This report provides a detailed analysis of consumer attitudes and behaviour regarding personal insurance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic across ten countries in 2020: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. It includes a comparative overview chapter followed by a chapter on each of these countries, including all of the analysis provided by the individual country reports.

Governments ordered lockdowns across 2020 and into 2021, which accelerated trends for consumers to use digital interfaces for a vast range of activities, from work, shopping and leisure to medical appointments and religious services. The insurance sector was also profoundly affected by these lockdowns, and had to change the way that it dealt with customers overnight as claims for travel and cancellation insurance came in. The sector suffered reputational damage over business interruption claims, and motorists questioned the value of their policies when they were driving much less. So what are the implications of these changes for insurance providers? 

• Which digital technologies should insurance providers invest in?
• Did the sector suffer reputational damage?
• Will drivers switch to telematics faster as a result of lockdowns?

This report provides analysis in four main areas:

Impact of lockdowns

• What was the impact of lockdowns in 2020 across each of these ten countries?

Communication with insurers

• How did consumers communicate with insurance providers when lockdowns made face-to-face communication impossible?
• In country X, consumers switched to email and phone to contact their insurance provider during lockdowns, instead of face-to-face communication