Complaint Inquiry

at Providers of

Insurance

Regarding the Year 2021

September 2022

Report

AFM.nl/complaint-inquiry

2 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance 3 Total 125,000 Complaints 3 Life Sub-market Shows Largest Decrease in Complaints 4 Number of Complaints Regarding Income Insurance Rises 6 Number of Complaints Regarding Health Insurance Decreases Further 7 Data Quality 8 Expansion and Improvement 8 More Information 8

3 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

In 2022, the AFM conducted its fourth annual inquiry into registered complaints among all providers of insurance. The inquiry contains much relevant information that benefits both our supervision and market participants. We also shared the (aggregated) data with the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) for their annual Consumer Trends Report. Through this report, the AFM links a number of insights from the provided data back to the providers of insurance.

In the inquiry, information was requested about all complaints registered with providers of insurance in 2021 (including complaints that were still open from before 2021). In this report, the AFM shares the most important statistics. This is the fourth year in which we have systematically inquired about complaints from providers of insurance.

Total 125,000 Complaints

In total, 168 providers of insurance reported completing 125,000 complaints. This is a decrease of 18.7% compared to last year, when 154,000 complaints were reported (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Total number of complaints per year Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
160,000
169,000
154,000
125,000
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
180,000
2018 2019 2020 2021

4 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

As last year, approximately half of the complaints (62,500 complaints) come from the Health sub-market (see Figure 2). Health is also the largest sub-market measured by number of policies and premium volume. The sub-markets Property & Casualty (49,000 complaints) and Life (13,500 complaints) follow.

Figure 2 Total number of complaints per sub-market in 2021 Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
62,500
49,000
13,500
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
Health Property & Casualty Life

Life Sub-market Shows Largest Decrease in Number of Complaints

The largest decrease in the number of complaints compared to 2020 is seen in the Life sub-market; the number of complaints decreased from 30,000 to 13,500 (a decrease of 55%). The number of complaints also decreased in the Property & Casualty (-11%) and Health (-10%) sub-markets. See Figure 3 for this.

Figure 3 Development of number of complaints per sub-market Source: AFM

1 Figures for the last three years used for the graphs

[Chart Data]
62,500
69,000
86,000
49,000
55,000
57,000
13,500
30,000
26,000
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 Health Property & Casualty Life

5 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

Figure 4 breaks down complaints by product group for the Life sub-market. This shows that in all product groups, the number of complaints decreased.

Figure 4 Development of number of complaints per product group - Life Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
2,500
16,900
8,100
5,200
6,300
8,000
2,700
3,000
4,500
1,700
1,800
1,800
900
1,200
1,100
530
700
2,200
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 Funeral Life-Investment Life-Savings Annuities Death Risk Life-Other

6 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

Number of Complaints Regarding Income Insurance Rises

Figure 5 breaks down complaints by product group for the Property & Casualty sub-market. This shows that only for the income product group did the total number of complaints increase last year compared to the previous year (+23%). The number of complaints in all other product groups decreased. The largest decrease was in the travel product group (-40%).

Figure 5 Development of number of complaints per product group - Property & Casualty Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
12,700
13,600
14,300
11,300
12,400
13,100
11,300
12,100
13,000
4,400
7,400
6,600
4,400
4,900
4,300
1,900
2,400
2,500
2,800
2,300
3,000
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 Motor Vehicles Fire & Business Other Damage Travel Legal Liability Liability Income

7 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

Number of Complaints Regarding Health Insurance Decreases Further

Figure 6 shows a breakdown of complaints by product group for the Health sub-market. This shows that for both basic health insurance and supplementary health insurance, complaints decreased further in 2021.

Figure 6 Development of number of complaints per product group - Health Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
47,700
50,800
61,400
14,800
18,600
25,000
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 2021 2020 2019 2021 2020 2019 Health - Basic Health - Supplementary

Figure 7 shows the completed breakdown of complaints by service delivery phase for each market segment. This shows that for the Health and Property & Casualty sub-markets, the highest number of complaints falls into the category 'claims handling-payout phase'. For the Life sub-market, the highest number of complaints falls into the category 'service delivery in the administration phase'. These are all kinds of complaints that can arise during the term of an insurance, for example regarding changes or, in the case of property insurance, also premium changes.

Figure 7 Number of complaints per sub-market divided by complaint cause Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
200
500
10,000
200
2,800
4,700
2,400
18,700
3,700
19,500
1,000
4,600
26,500
950
29,300
0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 acceptance mediation - advisory service delivery administration phase employee claims handling-payout acceptance mediation - advisory service delivery administration phase employee claims handling-payout acceptance mediation - advisory service delivery administration phase employee claims handling-payout Life Property & Casualty Health

8 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

Finally, the average duration of a complaint is 19.3 days, calculated from the moment a consumer submits the complaint until it is handled. This is an average decrease of approximately 10 days compared to last year. A complaint is considered handled if there is no longer a complaint/expression of dissatisfaction. In Figure 8, it can be seen that the processing time is longest for the product group 'income' and shortest for travel insurance.

Figure 8 Processing time of complaints in days per product group Source: AFM

[Chart Data]
39
31
28
27
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
12
11
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Income
Annuities
Life - Other
Life - Investment
Life - Savings
Legal Liability
Death Risk
Liability
Funeral
Fire & Business
Health - Basic
Other Damage
Motor Vehicles
Health - Supplementary
Travel

Data Quality

The AFM paid extra attention to the quality of the reported data in the last inquiry. For example, ensuring that ongoing complaints from the previous year were reported under the same complaint number. Other examples are that all closed complaints had an end date and that no negative processing times were reported. To this end, we asked some providers to resubmit corrected complaint data. Next year, the AFM will also pay attention to this. The same applies to the missing explanation from providers who report 'zero' complaints.

Expansion and Improvement

Based on new insights and experiences, the AFM improves the complaint inquiry annually where necessary. This includes, among other things, that we may further sharpen and clarify definitions or that the AFM makes the way data can be provided more user-friendly. The complaint inquiry is held annually, allowing the AFM to show global trends and developments based on this. The data from the 2022 complaint inquiry helps us to shape our supervision more efficiently and effectively.

More Information

In the annual complaint inquiry, we request information about ongoing, received, and closed complaints per year. The complaint inquiry is held among all providers of insurance with a Dutch license and foreign providers with a branch office in the Netherlands. The requested information concerns, among other things, duration, type of product, type of customer, and the main cause of complaints. The structure of the inquiry is granular, meaning that the provider reports per complaint. On our website, there is more general information about the complaint inquiry, such as about the design, the method of reporting, and the definitions used.

9 Complaint Inquiry at Providers of Insurance

The AFM strives for fair and transparent financial markets. As an independent conduct supervisor, we contribute to sustainable financial well-being in the Netherlands. The text of this publication has been compiled with care and is of an informative nature. You cannot derive any rights from it. Due to changing legislation and regulations at the national and international level, it is possible that the text is not up to date at the moment you read it. The Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) is not liable for any possible consequences – for example, incurred loss or lost profit – arising from or in connection with actions taken based on this text. © Copyright AFM 2022 Authority for the Financial Markets Postbus 11723 | 1001 GS Amsterdam Telephone 020 797 2000 www.afm.nl Data Classification AFM - Public