Amazon has launched a home insurance comparison service in Britain – bringing it a step closer to the life and savings market.

The tech giant announced last week that it has already signed up three large insurers to its portal – Ageas UK, Co-op, and LV= General Insurance, part of Allianz.

It hopes to add more early next year.

Ian McKenna – director of the Financial Technology Research Council – warned that this should be a “wakeup call to the whole industry”.

“Amazon uses data science to understand customer behaviour perhaps better than any other company in the world,” he told Mortgage Strategy sister magazine Money Marketing.

“The prospect of them suggesting what people’s preferences might be for, say, an Isa must be disturbing for the whole investment industry. The same must also be true for protection advisers.”

The online behemoth increasingly sees financial services as an attractive market to enter.

In August last year, Amazon invested in Indian fintech start-up Smallcase, laying the foundations for an incursion into the wealth management space.

The firm has had a limited insurance operation in the UK for several years.

It dipped its toe further into the financial services sector in 2020, when it announced its intention offer car and motorbike insurance in India.

McKenna believes the wealth management industry should be vigilant.

He says: “On a positive note Amazon has the potential to reach millions of people who are not protecting their families or saving in ways that have never been achieved before.”

However, he warns this deal must highlight to advisers why they need a “comprehensive digital presence” in order to ensure they are the “primary choice” for financial discussion a client wants to have.

“If Amazon put something forward on a ‘people like you basis’, advisers should ensure the client will call them of an objective perspective.”