Direct Line pulls plug on venture

Royal Bank of Scotland Insurance has admitted defeat in its efforts to launch Direct Line in the world's largest motor market, Japan. The personal lines brand pulled out of the Japanese market last month claiming a lack of appetite for telephone-based insurance products in the country.

The company had high hopes when it teamed up with Yasuda Life to sell motor insurance in October 1999.

Direct Line spokesperson Gill Murphy explained: "We tried out our model in Japan and for a while it was successful. However, as time went on trading was not as strong as we had anticipated."

RBSI would not disclose how much the Japanese venture cost or how many policyholders it had, but PM understands the figure is around 300,000.

Direct Line has sold its share holdings in the Japanese venture to MeijiYasuda, after Meiji and Yasuda merged earlier this year. The contract has since been passed onto Nipponkoa.

However, Direct Line was quick to stress this was not symptomatic of all its overseas operations. "We saw 66% growth last year in Germany, Italy and Spain," Ms Murphy added.