The chief executives of Compare the Market, Confused.com and MONY Group PLC, the owner of MoneySuperMarket, told the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee on Wednesday that price comparison websites need standardised claims data from insurers so customers can judge whether providers actually deliver on their promises.
Mark Bailie of Compare the Market, Steve Dukes of Confused.com and Peter Duffy of MONY Group appeared before peers as part of the committee's ongoing inquiry into the regulation of the UK's consumer insurance market, which has already raised concerns about FCA enforcement and low home insurance claims acceptance rates in earlier sessions. Their evidence followed an earlier session with Johnny Timpson OBE, a member of the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Financial Services Consumer Panel.
Bailie told the committee that comparison sites have been requesting standardised claims data since October 2022, repeating the request to the regulator in 2024 before going public with the demand in 2025.
"We sell a promise," he said. "We want claims data, we want standardised definitions and we want standardised disclosure."
He said around 40% of insurers have agreed to proposed definitions after roughly a year of talks, with 10% refusing outright and the remainder still negotiating. Dukes said an FCA working group is attempting to resolve the standardisation question, but that regulatory intervention may follow if voluntary progress stalls.
Duffy and Dukes echoed the point, arguing that comparison sites already give customers rich detail on price and cover but cannot say how reliably any given insurer pays out.
Dukes told peers that roughly 60% of motor insurance customers and more than 70% of home insurance customers renew with their existing insurer rather than switching, and that around 80% of those who switch use a comparison site, giving comparison websites an overall share of close to 30% of all policies sold.
Bailie cited an Imperial College study finding that customers who do not switch consistently pay around 20% more for cover, a figure he linked to the FCA's own finding that search and switching inertia is the biggest driver of poor outcomes in the market.
All three witnesses said their businesses are paid only when a customer completes a purchase, through a fixed fee agreed with each insurer, and that commission does not vary between a policy's cheaper and more comprehensive versions.
Duffy said MONY Group took £445 million in revenue last year, roughly half of it from general insurance, across brands including MoneySuperMarket, Money Saving Expert and Quidco.
Bailie said Compare the Market voluntarily capped its travel insurance commission at £200 for customers with medical conditions or older customers in October 2024, returning the difference to customers as a reduction in premium.
Earlier in the day, Timpson told the committee that close to a third of buildings insurance claims are declined, largely because customers do not understand the scope of the cover they bought or because of non-disclosure issues.
Asked directly whether price comparison websites are meeting their obligations under the Consumer Duty, Timpson said "there's certainly more that they can do," adding that the sector's near-universal five-star ratings are not, in his view, a sound basis for consumers to judge value.
He drew a parallel with critical illness claims in the life insurance sector in the mid-2000s, when payout rates fell into the 70% range and the threat of a super-complaint pushed insurers to review how they framed disclosure questions, a debate that echoes evidence given to the same committee by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) on Consumer Duty enforcement.
Timpson said general insurers already disclose the percentage of claims they pay, a practice he would like extended to the average time taken to pay a claim.
He also raised concerns that some disadvantaged groups continue to pay more for motor insurance, warning that the growing use of AI in pricing could magnify the problem if data quality and algorithm transparency issues are not addressed. He pointed to US states that have removed credit scores from pricing algorithms as one approach UK insurers could examine.
