By Miles, the insurance startup that knows its customers

London-based pay-by-mile car insurance provider By Miles announced it has become the first UK insurance startup to be directly authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority under Open Banking regulations. With this permission, By Miles plans to roll out its payment services in the first half of 2020 to offer members a more manageable way of paying their monthly premiums. This also means By Miles can more effectively manage fraud as it can automatically verify a customer’s identity.

Established in 2016, the company works with AXA and La Parisienne Assurances to offer usage-based auto insurance although it has worked with other underwriters in the past to help broaden its underwriting footprint. A typical policyholder is a city driver who’s older than the average telematics policyholder “as most ‘black box’ policies in the UK are pay-how-you-drive car insurance that prices based on scoring” – something By Miles doesn’t do. Finally, it enjoys “considerable distribution volume” from aggregators and its most recent integration has been with Honcho , a reverse auction marketplace for car insurance.

“We’re always trying to find ways to make insurance fairer and more accessible. With Open Banking, we’ll be able to show that a customer has been able to make their regular insurance payments over the past year. This will mean drivers who could really benefit from the flexibility of a pay-by-mile policy can now be offered one, in instances where their traditional credit score might have suggested otherwise. In a nutshell, this is what Open Banking and PSD2 (the EU Payments Services Directive) are all about. By giving individuals the ability to control the information associated with their accounts and initiate payments, third parties (including startups like us), can help them access better deals.” – James Blackham, cofounder and CEO of By Miles.