The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has opened consultation on new rules which would require firms to publish General Insurance (GI) value measures data in a bid to improve transparency for consumers.

Alongside the Consultation Paper, the FCA has also published a third annual value measures dataset, covering the year to August 2018.

The FCA had previously identified issues of poor value in the GI market, with concern surrounding the lack of commonly available measures to assess the value for money of GI products.

Since 2016 the FCA has been piloting the publication of value measures data with firms, and it said in a statement issued this week that “the pilot has had a positive impact in the market”.

The pilot scheme had improved both transparency and awareness of a common set of measures of product value, helping firms to assess the value of their products and make improvements, it said.

This week’s announcement from the FCA revealed proposals to introduce rules requiring firms to report value measures data for publication.

It said: “The FCA also propose to extend the scope of value measures reporting to cover most general insurance products, as well as an additional measure to identify where consumers are unhappy and have made a complaint as part of the claim process.

“The consultation also proposes that firms must use the value measures data when considering whether their products offer value to their customers as required by the FCA’s existing rules.”

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “It is encouraging to see that the value measures pilot has been successful and that firms have already been using the data to make changes and product improvements.

“We have identified poor product value as a key area of harm in this market.

“The proposals we have set out today aim to increase competition on product value, which will benefit firms and consumers.'

The FCA is now seeking comments on the proposals set out in this Consultation Paper, which closes on April 30.