REX: Zen’Up Making the Most of the Bourquin Law

The InsurTech Zen'Up –which specialises in digital insurance services– reports on their activity one year after the Bourquin Amendment came into force.

In 2018, their Onexia Initial offer accounted for over 70% of their production volumes. This service is intended for customers interested in opting for another borrower’s insurance (as per the Bourquin and Hamon contract cancellation terms). All in all, Zen'Up claims €1 billion in insured loans.
Offer’s key assets:
- Attractive prices for all age groups
- Simplified health questionnaire, to be filled out online
- Instant decisioning in 90% of the cases
- Subscription within an hour via digital signing process
- Fixed monthly instalments, which can easily be compared with banking groups’ insurance prices
- Easy to implement contract amendments (via digital signing)

Provide an alternative to bancassurance specialists: The InsurTech intends to make the most of the flexibility entailed by the Bourquin Amendment in enabling customers to renegotiate and change their borrowers’ insurance.
Consolidate their position on a still emerging market. Zen'Up launched in 2017 with a –not yet widespread– full-digital offer. As they entered the market for assisting customers through cancelling their borrowers’ insurance, they also bet on the expertise they acquired in dealing with the Hamon Act. This insurance company implemented a process likely to attract customers as it makes these procedures less tedious.

Their insurance product was built based on the Bourquin Amendment of January the 12^th 2018. This Act allows customers with a mortgage, personal loan or business loan to renegotiate or cancel their borrowers’ insurance every year.
Unlike the previous Act –i.e.: the Hamon Act, which only enabled customers to cancel or make changes to their mortgage insurance prior to its first anniversary– the Bourquin Amendment allows them to make changes, or even terminate a contract and subscribe another one every year, when the said contract reaches its anniversary date.
The Bourquin Amendment caused competition to increase among credit institutions and insurance companies. These changes customers are allowed to apply, led insurance costs to fall by roughly 8% according to a study by the Comité Consultatif du Secteur Financier (French financial sector advisory committee).
Throughout 2017, the market for mortgage insurance generated €9.1 billion (in the FFA’s assessments –French federation for the insurance sector): 88% of this amount is held by banks (or slightly more than €8 billion) and 12% for contracts subscribed with other institutions than the initial lender (more than €1 billion).
Zen'Up plans to expand their range of products throughout 2019. They deem that 50% of the French populations isn’t aware that they actually are allowed to cancel their borrowers’ insurance.

Category : Alertes quotidiennes