The news: Chase launched its first insurance product in the UK, called Chase Protect, for £12.50 ($16.47) per month. The bundle includes worldwide travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, and car breakdown coverage. Policy purchase and claims are managed through the banking app.

Trendspotting: Chase is entering a crowded market of digitally native banks that bundle insurance products.

• Monzo’s Max tier includes mobile phone coverage, travel insurance, and breakdown insurance, and it recently released a home insurance product. Revolut offers travel insurance and global medical coverage in its paid plans. Neither they nor Chase underwrite those plans.
• Starling takes a different approach, offering insurance through its marketplace rather than packaging it.

Zooming out: Chase launched its UK digital bank in 2021 with current accounts and a rewards program. At launch, Sanoke Viswanathan, then head of JPMorgan’s international consumer bank, signaled mortgages, personal lending, and investments among future products.

Chase has since introduced savings accounts and a credit card. The bank also acquired Nutmeg, a UK investment app, in 2021 and folded its features into the Chase app.

Implications for banks: Chase UK is an increasingly credible threat to high street banks and competes in a market already crowded with digital challengers—whose dominance in consumer rankings has proved durable.

In the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority’s latest survey, conducted by Ipsos, Chase ranked third of 16 for digital banking services, behind only Monzo and Starling. It ranked fifth for overall service quality, ahead of every high street bank except Nationwide. Broadly, incumbents struggle to meet the expectations challengers set for overall service quality, digital services, and overdraft services. The gap is not closing—and bundled insurance, long a high street staple, is now a digital challenger offering too.