As part of its new information series “Let’s talk about money”, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) today published an information document containing practical tips about using insurance comparison portals. The information is based on analysis conducted by the FMA last year, in which the design and practices of comparison portals active in the Austrian insurance market were investigated.
There are explanations for consumers about what to look out for when using comparison portals including the up-to-dateness of content, the independence of portals, broker commission, the ranking of selected products and advice offered.
“The topics chosen for our new series ‘Let’s talk about money’ are always derived from the most frequently asked questions to our consumer information – in this new publication we react to consumer’s increasing need to use digital distribution channels, and to compare products online,” remarked the FMA’s Executive Directors, Helmut Ettl and Eduard Müller.
Comparison portals are websites that enable a direct price comparison between products and services provided by several different providers. In particular in the insurance industry they are becoming ever more important – as was already demonstrated in the FMA’s Study on “Digitalisation in the Austrian Financial Market”, published in 2019. Half of all insurance undertakings allow their products to be listed on comparison portals, with policies most frequently concluded in the motor insurance and household contents/home insurance.
The new edition of “Let’s talk about money” can be found under the following link. A long version (in German only) of the findings of the analysis can be found on the FMA website.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Annemarie Bauer
Tel.: +43/(0)1/24959-6007