Insurers are readying themselves for next week's European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on the use of gender for underwriting.
One protection provider has already admitted that it is likely to temporarily close to new business if a re-price is necessary, while Assureweb has said it is expecting a busy weekend of insurer re-pricing activity.
Tom Baigrie, managing director of LifeSearch, confirmed to COVER that providers were addressing the possibility of a significant re-pricing if a decision to outlaw gender based underwriting came to pass.
"During conversations with providers over the last week, one said they felt the pricing difficulties caused by such a judgment might lead them to suspend their rates while they did a re-price.
"And two said they had already done that and would be making a price continuity," he said.
Technology provider Assureweb supported this view, acknowledging that some providers had indicated they may need to temporarily "panel out", but confirmed that its software would be unaffected.
Ian Teague, commercial director at Assureweb, explained: "From our perspective our service wont be impacted as we have the ability to add or remove products very quickly.
"I think the provider community have considered what their positions will be and some will need to make some changes but they're probably all in slightly different places based on their own product sets.
"I think some providers may panel their products out which I suspect may be relatively short periods of time depending on where the ruling goes.
"We've seen already Living Time have done re-pricing changes in advance and I guess it'll be a busy weekend in the provider community," he added.
Earlier, Assureweb had noted that it was "working closely with providers to ensure no disruption to services should this ruling come into force" and that "some providers may not be available for a while as they need to make changes."
