Sony Assurance Announces Results of Review into the Appropriateness of Its Fire Insurance Solicitation System
April 27, 2007
Sony Assurance Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Financial Holdings, today announced the nearly-complete results of a review that it began conducting in January 2007 into the appropriateness of solicitation system on its fire insurance (including earthquake insurance) policies*. The review, which included contracts, was conducted from the standpoint of enhancing appropriateness. On policies that were discovered to have mistaken premiums, the company is taking steps to revise contracts and return the premium amount to account for the difference between past premiums paid and the correct premium amounts. The company sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience it has caused to its customers and is mounting a companywide effort to strengthen its systems to prevent a recurrence.
*At present, the scope of Sony Assurance's fire insurance is only mortgage loan specific long-term fire insurance sold through a specified agency, and is not sold directly.
- Review Results
- Measures to Prevent Recurrence
On in-force and lapsed fire insurance (including earthquake insurance) policies, the company reviewed the contracts that were basis for premium calculations, then examined the appropriateness of premiums on all policies having possibility of premium errors. As a result of this review, the company discovered 21 cases, corresponding to premium overpayments of ¥3,601 thousand, caused by such issues as the failure to apply discounts.
In addition to reviewing the contracts, which are basis for premium calculations on fire insurance (including earthquake insurance) policies, Sony Assurance will review the solicitation system. With the aim of enhancing the appropriateness of its insurance policies, Sony Assurance will work on (i) strengthening its system of providing explanations to customers both at the time of explaining product specifics and at policy application and (ii) strengthening its administrative process (reviewing the operation flow, enhancing education and training, and improving manuals).
Note: This is an English-language summary of a Japanese announcement made by Sony Assurance on April 27, 2007. The summary was prepared by Sony Financial Holdings Inc. solely for the convenience of non-Japanese readers.
