Britain on Monday changed the rate at which compensation payments are calculated in personal injury claims, which is likely to increase the size of lump sum pay outs and potentially hit UK motor insurers' profit.

The UK motor and home insurer said it expects profit before tax to fall by between 215 million pounds and 230 million pounds after reinsurance recoveries.

Direct Line shares were down 5.8 percent, the top losers on the FTSE 100 <.FTSE>

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Susan Thomas)