The suspension relates to so-called guaranteed asset protection (GAP) insurance which customers buy to cover the difference between a car's purchase price and market value at the time of a claim.

"GAP insurance can provide a useful service to customers, but in its current form it does not offer fair value and we want to see improvements," Sheldon Mills, the Financial Conduct Authority's director of consumers and competition, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Carolyn Cohn)