Banks as Insurance Referral Agents? The Convergence of Financial Services: Evidence from the Title Insurance Industry

The purpose of this paper is to offer a glimpse into the potential industrial organization of the property casualty insurance (P&C) market if banks continue to penetrate it at current rates. To do so, we study an insurance market where banks are already integral in distribution: Title insurance. We draw some broad comparisons between the distribution channels used to sell title insurance and the channel used by banks entering the P&C market. The title insurance industry is characterized by two major entry barriers: Controlled business arrangements and title plants. Although title insurance has not generated much academic interest compared to other insurance products, title insurance is an insurance product wherein the distribution process banks have traditionally been heavily involved. In this paper, we test different industrial organization growth models with barriers to entry. Our empirical analysis suggests that the current title insurance industry structure fits the Salop circular-city model. Our contention is that if banks continue their current trend of market penetration in property casualty markets, the results presented herein could potentially offer an insight into the future structure of the P&C market.
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