New Zealand’s Vero is dropping a long-standing industry practice of comparing male and female customers after consulting with its LGBTIQ+ employee resource group Amplify.

The insurer’s product team will strip gender from its underwriting data and pricing on car insurance products over the next 12-18 months even though gender and age together help to determine the likelihood of a claim, and gender has a significant price impact for some age ranges.

Vero will undertake lengthy work to “smooth” pricing differences to ensure that when gender is removed as a factor altogether, it won’t create any sudden premium changes customers aren’t prepared for.

“If we were to remove the gender rating on premiums suddenly, it would mean big changes to some customers’ premiums at renewal,” Vero Executive Manager Consumer Insurance Sacha Cowlrick said, adding that binary distinctions were not a true reflection of the gender spectrum of its customers.

“New Zealanders identify with a much broader range of gender identities,” Ms Cowlrick said. “We have made the decision that it is simpler and more inclusive to begin removing gender from our underwriting.”