Employers’ and public liability to be added to insurance database

The scope of the national database on insurance costs is to be extended to include employers' and public liability, the Central Bank has said.

The National Claims Information Database (NCID) is a database that stores of information on the cost of non-life insurance claims. The Central Bank is responsible for collecting the information and managing the NCID.

The purpose of the NCID is to improve transparency around the cost of settling claims, and the impact this has on the cost of insurance.

A study by the regulator has found there is merit in extending the scope of the NCID to include employers’ and public liability data, and that it is feasible to do so, albeit with an incremental approach to data collection.

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The Alliance for Insurance Reform welcomed the move but criticised delays in the publication of the report as well as gaps in the proposed data. Peter Boland, director of the alliance, said he had “two major problems”.

“Firstly, the NCID liability report was scheduled for publication during 2020. The pushing-out of the publication to the first half of 2021, over three years after it was first mooted by the Cost of Insurance Working Group, represents a major setback for policyholders.

“Secondly, there is no mention at all in today’s study of insurers’ income and expenditure data as was provided in the NCID Private Motor Insurance report.

“It will not be possible to draw any meaningful conclusions on the state of the liability insurance market in Ireland unless at least 10 years of data is supplied.”

Central Bank director of economics and statistics Mark Cassidy said the regulator was "focused on ensuring that the insurance sector sustainably serves the needs of the economy and its customers".

“Credible, publicly available data in relation to employers’ and public liability insurance would benefit all stakeholders in the insurance market, and we intend to publish this data as soon as possible,” he said.

Policy responses

“It is clear from our study that there is currently a lack of publicly available data in relation to the claims costs and trends for employers’ and public liability insurance.

“This deficit of data in this area does not allow conclusions to be drawn as to the causes of underlying trends in the employers’ and public liability insurance market. This limits the ability to determine appropriate policy responses to address the issues in this area.”

Liability insurance consists of a broad range of business sectors, types and sizes, covering a variety of risks and this increases the complexity of data collection.

The Central Bank said it intends to collect this data in the second half of this year and publish the first employers’ and public liability NCID report in the first half of next year, with annual publications of data thereafter.

The final report will focus on data prior to and including 2019. Aggregate data on premiums, claims and settlement costs will be published as part of the report.

The Central Bank said the report would “improve transparency and the understanding of the issues affecting the functioning of the insurance market in Ireland”.