Covéa collaborates with brokers on data sharing and risk management – Georges de Macedo

Covéa Insurance wants to be “useful” and “valuable” for its broker partners through the continuation of projects such risk management and prevention events and improved data sharing to inform pricing, according to the insurer’s chief executive Georges de Macedo.

Speaking to Insurance Times following the publication of the firm’s 2024 full-year financial results on 9 April 2025, which saw Covéa Insurance move from a loss-making position in 2023 to achieve £32.9m in profit last year, De Macedo confirmed that “good relationships” and support from brokers was “very important” to the business – so much so that it is defined as one of the five pillars that comprise his ‘Doing what really matters’ strategy, which launched in December 2023.

On a day-to-day basis, this mentality can be seen through Covéa Insurance’s “agile” model, which De Macedo described as being devoid of financial complexity and flexible enough to develop propositions that can accommodate varied brokers’ needs across the insurer’s core appetite of car, van, standard home, private clients and pet products, as well as commercial SME.

However, he signposted two ways that Covéa Insurance is collaborating with brokers in a particularly impactful way.

Firstly, he noted that the insurer has better embraced data sharing with broker partners, to facilitate more accurate pricing. He commented that prior to the introduction of the Doing what really matters strategy, even if brokers wanted to share data with Covéa Insurance, the business was not set up to enable this.

Now, however, the insurer has the “tools” in place to leverage a more coherent data relationship with its partners.

Prevention education

Secondly, De Macedo explained that Covéa Insurance has been striving to do more to prevent personal lines claims by educating brokers on topical claims trends and the possible impact of these on end customers.

He said: “We have good relationships with brokers and they are supporting us. This is very important for us.

“We work with brokers to share our insight about claims, new trends, climate change and help them to better understand what are the risks that their customers are facing – to help customers better understand the risk they are exposed, to make sure that the policies [customers have are] right [and] really aligned with their exposure.

“You might be surprised how [often customers believe they have the right policy, or have identified] the most important risk for them, but actually it’s not.

“To be able to share this information back to our brokers is really useful and valuable.”

Primarily, this information is conveyed during ad hoc, in-person, one-to-one meetings or via webinars, however De Macedo flagged that the insurer holds quarterly networking events with brokers too. It has been doing this for the past five years.

These meetings each have a different theme – for example, climate change, motor claims, Consumer Duty, fraud, inflation or flooding – and are typically attended by between 30 and 50 of Covéa Insurance’s broker partners.

De Macedo added that broker feedback on the networking events has been positive so far.

‘Open to business’

De Macedo has not at this point ringfenced any new broker initiatives for 2025 – however, he recognised that “insurance is a continuous evolution” and that this stance may change over the course of the year.

In terms of Covéa Insurance’s appetite to be involved in broker schemes, De Macedo is hesitant to play his hand here. He advocated that the insurer would be taking a measured approach to schemes opportunities, carefully analysing whether any new programmes would fit squarely into Covéa Insurance’s wheelhouse.

He said: “We are open to business. Growth is important, a top priority. We want to make sure that what we do makes sense for us, to generate value.

“With a new initiative, we’ll look at it. We’ll consider it if it fits in our underwriting, if we have the right data to price [the business]. If we have the right services, systems, we’ll do it. If not, we’ll say no, sorry.”

De Macedo added that in some cases, an initial refusal to collaborate on a scheme could lead to brokers’ refining their ideas, which could make them more viable cases for the insurer to take on, however.