Insurance Overview
Insurance companies supply services to a wide variety of customers, from everyday consumers to large corporations.
But do they have guidelines or policies as to who they will and won't insure? Do green and ethical considerations feature in insurance companies' risk assessments?
Might they, for example, offer coverage to munitions factories or companies with significant operations in countries with oppressive regimes? Or might they insure others with poor labour or environmental records?
Green and ethical insurance products
Green and ethical insurance products
For home, motor, travel, life and health insurance, there is a small but growing number of green and ethical insurance products available. A selection is below:
- Co-operative Insurance
Insurance type: home, motor, life and health
This provider has a comprehensive ethical engagement policy in place that governs all its insurance decisions. The Co-op's 'ecoinsurance' scheme offers cash incentives as well as environmental pledges. It offsets the equivalent of 20 per cent of the CO2 from every vehicle insured and also offers premium discounts for greener cars. - Climate Sure
Insurance type: travel
Climate Sure calculates the CO2 produced by flying overseas and pays for it to be 'offset' by funding sustainable energy projects. - Green Insurance Company
Insurance type: motor
This provider aims to offset your car's carbon emissions and offers discounts on greener cars/lower mileage. - Naturesave
Insurance types: home, travel, personal accident and illness
This company puts 10% of its personal insurance premiums in a fund (Naturesave Trust) to benefit environmental and conservation projects. It also offers a free environmental performance review for commercial clients and aims to use suppliers that support sustainable business practices. - Ansvar Insurance Co Ltd
Insurance types: home, motor, travel
Insurance is sold to individuals and organisations with a not-for-profit remit.
Your next steps
What do you do now? Check out our guide Next Steps - Insurance for suggestions on how to give your insurance policies a green and ethical makeover as well as the questions you should be asking your current or prospective insurance provider.
Insurance Search
Insurance Provider
Coventry Building Society
Green/Ethical Products
None
Ethical Lending or Insurance
As a mutual building society the bulk of Coventry’s business is with private individuals. It does not undertake any commercial lending.
Responsible Lending
1. Credit Lending
Coventry Building Society offers an LTV (loan-to-value) rate of up to LTV up to 95% (for 6.99% fixed rate mortgage). This does not compare favourably with the suggestions made in the FSA’s Turner Review that a maximum of 90% of a property’s price be loaned i.e. that borrowers should have at least a 10% deposit for a mortgage.
The building society offers LTI (loan-to-income) rates of 3.6 and 4 depending on the customer's income range. The Turner Review suggests lending 3.5 times the annual wage of a single mortgage applicant.
The building society does not offer unsecured credit, for example personal loans.
2. Debt Warning
The building society issues a generic repossession warning: ‘Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.’
The building society does not use the FSA Debt Test. This test is designed to help customers find out whether they have, or are likely to have, problems with borrowing. It also has tips on what to do if customers find themselves in difficulties.
Coventry does offer a bugdet planning facility but no warnings are attached to its results.
3. Debt Management and Advice
With regard to policies on payment default and handling payment problems, Coventry Building Society, says it will:
- Talk to an external agency which gives debt advice (for example, the Citizens Advice Bureau) if requested
- Give the customer ‘reasonable time’ to pay back the debt
- Try to arrange a new payment plan taking the customer’s and the building society’s interests into account
- Change the way the customer makes payments or the date they make them
- Allow the customer to pay back their mortgage over a longer period of time, thus reducing monthly payments
- Change the type of mortgage the customer has
- Agree to let the customer stay in the property and sell it themselves
- Send a debt counsellor to discuss the customer’s financial circumstances, and add the cost of the visit to the mortgage account
The building society also outlines the steps leading up to repossession of property/court action.
Payment holidays are available for up to three months, but the circumstances under which they are granted is not made explicit.
No information was found as to whether the bank offers re-housing advice or liaises with organisations such as Shelter and the Citizens Advice Bureau to work out re-housing arrangements with mortgage customers facing re-possession.
Financial Exclusion
Coventry BS does not offer any products to the financially excluded.
While it states that it does not have formal access schemes, it tends to have bilingual staff in areas with high concentrations of speakers of other languages.
Because it does not lend commercially, Coventry is not involved in either microfinance or community lending or investment.
Environment
No set policy was found, however Coventry states that its head office has been using ‘green’ electricity since April 2007 and working with the Carbon Trust to become more energy efficient.
Carbon Neutral
No evidence was found of a pledge to make business operations carbon neutral.
Equal Opportunities
The building society’s equal opportunities policy does not address the key issue of sexuality/sexual orientation.
Women on the Board
2007 figures indicate that 27.3% of the board were women.
Voluntary Standards & Initiatives
Coventry is not a signatory of any relevant charters or initiatives, primarily because it does not lend commercially.
Charitable Giving
Coventry donated 0.16% of its pre-tax profits in 2007.
Coventry Building Society
- Current Accounts
- Savings
- Loans
- Mortgages
- Pensions
- Insurance (Home, Contents, Life and Critical Illness, Mortgage and Income)
Coventry Building Society
Coventry Building Society
PO Box 9
High Street
Coventry
CV1 5QN
