It is still too early to draw conclusions. Entering into force on September 1, the Lemoine Law reshuffled the cards one last time by allowing the termination of borrower insurance at any time and without conditions, as well as the abolition of medical questionnaires for loans below 200,000 euros. “To date, it is too early to observe an acceleration of requests from policyholders upon termination, and it will be necessary to wait a few more months before knowing whether the optimism linked to the Lemoine law will turn into additional activity for insurance intermediaries.“, according to a borrower insurance barometer published by MetLife.
Barely entered into force, these new conditions come up once morest the current context, particularly on the credit market. Bad news for intermediaries, who nevertheless remain mostly positive – at 71% – regarding the impact of the law on the change of borrower insurance.
Although this market represents only 10% of intermediaries’ turnover – i.e. four contracts per month on average with a strong disparity between credit brokers who carry out 5.6 contracts once morest 3.5 for general agents – the event might deserve their attention. The share of the delegation (during the subscription of the loan) and the termination during the loan is identical in the borrower insurance activity of the intermediaries, ie 50% for each of the delegations. An exception for credit brokers who are more divided at 62% delegation – 38% termination.
General agents, good students
According to the study carried out by CSA for MetLife, the intermediaries currently carry out very little commercial prospecting on borrower insurance. In contrast, general agents stand out for their active approach to their client portfolio (47%). “The other intermediaries are mostly content to respond to the request of potential customers, whether for delegation or termination», Indicates the barometer. Note that credit brokers provide amounts slightly lower than the average. For 94% of insured loans, the amounts are less than 400,000 euros. As for general agents, the amounts insured are generally higher and insurance brokers are in the middle range.
Profiles to target
The barometer reveals that 61% of borrowers are between 35 and 45 years old when they take out a loan. As part of the delegation, when taking out the loan, insurance agents and brokers declare that they have mostly borrowers between the ages of 35 and 45 (68%). The latter borrow for an amount of less than €400,000 in 85% of cases.
In the event of termination
For cancellations, the remaining term of the loan on average is between 5 and 10 years in 29% of cases, 30% between 11 and 15 years. The outstanding capital is 57% for loans below 200,000 euros and 32% for loans between 200,000 and 400,000 euros.
What is blocking
Regarding the obstacles to delegation and termination, the respondents pointed the finger at the banks, in particular for their “résistance» on subscription or termination. In second place comes the difficulties encountered during thesubscriptions“considered as”complexes».
«Intermediaries would probably have every interest in carrying out a proactive prospecting process, at least on termination, in order to exploit the potential that the Lemoine law seems to foreshadow (…). This proactive activity is also part of their duty to advise: to provide the best solution to customers. All the more critical in these times of search for purchasing power“Concludes MetLife in a press release.
