Zurich Australian Insurance Ltd (‘Zurich’) and underwriting agency, Blue Zebra Insurance Pty Ltd (‘Blue Zebra’) today announced they will end their underwriting agency agreement.

The agreement was established in February 2018 to offer a digitally enabled, end-to-end personal lines insurance platform via brokers in the Australian market.

Tim Plant, CEO General Insurance of Zurich Australia & New Zealand, said: “A key priority for us is business growth in our chosen market segments, and with Blue Zebra now looking to expand its offering into a wider range of products, we each needed to reassess the agreement.”

“This also comes at a time when Blue Zebra’s performance is not aligned with Zurich’s expectations, and after careful consideration we both agreed it was best to end the agreement.”

Zurich has relationships with a number of underwriting agencies and identifies significant potential for continued growth in Australia and New Zealand.

“Zurich has a strong reputation as an intermediated insurer, and we are committed to supporting our broker relationship model and to delivering high quality products and services to customers. Importantly we will continue to manage our obligations with customers who purchased insurance products using the Blue Zebra platform,” Mr Plant said.

While Zurich and Blue Zebra had hoped to announce this decision by the end of 2019, it has taken considerable time to ensure that the best interests of our customers and brokers were properly considered to enable a smooth transition. The agreement will officially end on 16 March 2020.

Zurich is committed to supporting all existing Blue Zebra policies incepted prior to this date and is working with Blue Zebra to help our customers impacted by the recent catastrophic bushfires. Blue Zebra is coordinating its support with brokers across affected regions to encourage customers to make contact at the earliest opportunity so claims can be lodged and assistance such as emergency accommodation can be provided.

Zurich will continue to work cooperatively with Blue Zebra as it transitions to a new underwriting arrangement with another insurer.

Colin Fagen, Managing Director of Blue Zebra Insurance Pty Ltd, said: “The team at Blue Zebra would like to thank Zurich for its support in the start-up phase of our business. It’s unfortunate that we could not continue the relationship as our portfolio matures and grows, however, we’re proud of what we have achieved to date and are excited about the next stage of our business as we continue to deliver technology enabled insurance options to the broker market for personal lines and other products.“

ENDS