ALLIANZ HAVING MIXED SUCCESS WITH VW-BRANDED POLICIES

Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS), the captive of vehicle manufacturer VW, is reported to have had a "mixed" response to the motor insurance joint venture Volkswagen Autoversicherung it launched five months ago in association with Allianz. VWFS Germany managing director Anthony Bandmann said that "so far we have received a heterogeneous feedback from our vendors", with the tariffs for insuring new cars being changed to suit the market. There have been reports that VW dealers have been less than keen to sell new-car policies for Volkswagen Autoversicherung, announced a year ago by VW and Allianz. The two backers plan to invest €400m ($542m) between launch and 2018. Although VW has been selling insurance for decades, the new business saw them taking on some of the risk. This enabled Allianz to boost its policy count – its market position had been under threat from HUK Coburg – without a concomitant increase in capital allocation. The intention is to increase the 700,000 policies a year Allianz sold to VW car buyers up to 1.2m by 2015 to 2018.