Ulster Bank said on Tuesday that it plans to transfer the renewal rights on car and home insurance policies that it sells to customers on behalf of Aviva Insurance Ireland to the insurer’s own intermediary, Aviva Direct Ireland.
“Customers do not need to take any action and we will write to them shortly to communicate this change and what it means for them,” said a statement from Ulster Bank, as the UK-owned lender continues to plan for a withdrawal from the Irish market.
Ulster Bank entered a deal in 2012 to act as an intermediary for car and home insurance ultimately underwritten by Aviva. Some 15,000 of the bank’s customers have such insurance policies.
The transfer, which will take effect on a rolling basis from September, relates to renewal rights for car and home insurance policies which are underwritten by Aviva Insurance Ireland, for which Ulster Bank acts as insurance intermediary for Ulster Bank customers.
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“In this context, since customer policies are already underwritten by Aviva with Ulster Bank as the intermediary, there will be no change to the terms and conditions of customers’ existing policies until their renewal date,” the statement said.
“When a customer’s current insurance policy expires, Aviva Direct will automatically issue a renewal quote before the renewal date and outline the terms of renewal cover. At that point, customers can renew the policy or seek alternative cover with another provider, as they could have done previously,” it added.
“Today’s announcement of this transfer to Aviva Direct is one more step in our phased withdrawal from the Republic of Ireland and I am happy to inform our customers that they don’t need to do anything until their policy comes up for renewal,” said Jane Howard, chief executive of Ulster Bank.
