Investors have rightly lowered their expectations of Admiral. Drivers staying off the roads during lockdown lowered claims and pushed up profits, which are this year forecast to peak at more than a third higher than the last. However, life is about to get harder for the Cardiff-based group and its peers, because from the start of this year, insurers have been forced to offer the same deals to existing customers as new ones after a shake-up of pricing rules by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), aimed at ending the so-called loyalty penalty.
Premiums for new customers are almost certain to increase. The question for insurers is: how high to maintain margins? Or will some choose to sacrifice margin to grow customer volumes? Firms are
