LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Thatcham Research
Introduction
Vehicle technology is expanding rapidly, putting pressure on insurance providers to keep pace to deliver fair and accurate pricing as well as a smooth claims experience.
In 2025, car registrations are expected to surpass 2 million units for the first time since 2019, and the BEV market share is anticipated to reach 26.0i. Already, 8 in 10 new cars in the U.K. come fitted with some form of driver assistance systemii and The IMIiii forecasts that 44% of the U.K. car parc will have level 2 autonomy by 2030. Against this backdrop, insurance is becoming far more streamlined with real-time data being used to assess risk at application and quote.
Thatcham’s Vehicle Risk Data (VRD) is integral to how insurers assess and rate risk for motor insurance products. LexisNexis Risk Solutions has been selected by Thatcham Research to help realise the full potential and predictive power of the VRD.
Thatcham’s VRD is used across the insurance market. Enhancing the way it is delivered and consumed will drive greater value for insurance providers. This will, in turn, help achieve a fair commercial value from the VRD to drive further investment in the valuable research undertaken by Thatcham.
In the future, the strategic relationship may also bring new insights to the insurance market by focusing on research and unlocking significant intelligence on vehicles that does not exist today.
About Thatcham Research VRD
Thatcham Research is the U.K.’s only ‘not for profit’ insurer-funded research centre. The automotive risk intelligence company’s research remains at the forefront of vehicle safety, security and repair.
For over 20 years, Thatcham Research has been publishing uniquely-sourced vehicle risk data (VRD) with each vehicle containing more than 100 individual data points, to help insurance providers understand risk and empower them to make better decisions for their customers.
Around 8 million insurance quotes are generated a week using Thatcham Research vehicle data and 92% of U.K. insurers are Thatcham Research membersiv.
Combined Expertise in Vehicle Data
LexisNexis Risk Solutions has been selected to help ensure Thatcham VRD keeps pace with the technological advances of the insurance market, based on our capability to handle large volumes of data, our almost unparalleled distribution network into the U.K. insurance market to deliver the data at speed, and our proven analytics skills to derive greater value for the VRD for the good of the market and its customers.
As an outcome of the strategic relationship, users of Thatcham VRD are set to gain:
- Access to Thatcham VRD in real time for the first time, alongside additional public and proprietary data sources, as part of a streamlined risk assessment process, via the LexisNexis Risk Solutions data platform, LexisNexis® Informed Quotes. This offers a single point of entry, delivering high-volume, real-time data enrichment at point of quote to help inform pricing and underwriting decisions, through proprietary links established with all major software houses and many major brokers or via a direct API.
- Consistent matching of the VRD to vehicle registrations. LexisNexis Risk Solutions will use our extensive linking and data normalisation expertise to match vehicles to Thatcham VRD to create greater consistency across multiple distribution channels.
In the short term
Through the LexisNexis Risk Solutions distribution network, Thatcham Research will be moving current VRD customers to a transactional model. This will bring the data in line with how the vast majority of data enrichment solutions are ingested by the insurance market. Insurer members of Thatcham Research will still receive the current Thatcham VRD as a flat file as part of the membership.
Looking to the Future
In the future, the relationship may explore the possibility of uncovering new, predictive vehicle intelligence as well.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions has a long track record of building new and innovative vehicle data products. Each one is focused on capturing information about ‘the metal’, translating that data into actionable insights, and delivering it in real time to our U.K. insurance clients.
Our vehicle strategy is both consistent with, and complementary to, the vision Thatcham Research has. Working together with our unique data assets we can drive substantial intelligence to support the market to make better, more informed decisions.
Gaining Advantage Through Digitisation
Every part of the motor insurance sector and the insurance customers this market serves will benefit from this strategic relationship and the digitisation of Thatcham VRD. Ultimately, the more intelligence insurance providers can access on the vehicles they are insuring, at speed at the point of quote, the more accurate the premium and the more likely they are to be able to deliver a swift claims experience.
Frequently Asked Questions:
We believe this relationship will have a positive impact on existing customers. It will enable the swift technical and commercial adoption of VRD for LexisNexis Risk Solutions customers due to integrations and contracts already being in place. Those Member customers who wish to keep batch files will be able to do so for up to three years. Insurer members of Thatcham Research will still receive the current Thatcham VRD as a flat file as part of the membership.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions is considerate of how the industry uses Thatcham VRD to determine insurance rates and will assist with ensuring the increase in costs are kept as low as possible for both partners and ultimately the end consumer.
The digitisation of Thatcham VRD is vital for the future of the motor insurance market and with our existing integrations with the insurance market, using LexisNexis Risk Solutions is the most cost-effective route for Thatcham Research. Any other route would have resulted in huge costs for the market.
Thatcham Research selected LexisNexis Risk Solutions as we are uniquely placed to help Thatcham Research achieve all of their objectives due to our distribution network, people, data assets and infrastructure. We pride ourselves in being experts in motor insurance, acting as a trusted translator of vehicle data and linking the automotive industry with our insurance clients. Looking to the future we can also see opportunities to expand the data into other insurance and ancillary products.
If you would like more information on this announcement, please contact:
Annalysce Baker
Communications Manager
annalysce.baker@lexisnexisrisk.com
+1 678-436-1579