Insurers still paying commissions inconsistent with the Life Insurance Code of Practice need to stop, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASC) deputy chairman, Peter Kell.
Answering questions during Senate Estimates, Kell acknowledged that the regulator’s recent review of the life insurance industry had identified two insurers which were still paying conflicted remuneration arrangements.
He said that while ASIC had opted not to name the insurers, it was something that it would be looking at.
“I suppose one of the other issues here is that we did not want to start selectively publishing bits and pieces of data; but we can look at that,” Kell said.
“The other point here is that, under the new life insurance code, those sorts of payments need to stop. That is one of the commitments in that code.”
“So we will be looking at that. That is going to be something that we will be following up on pretty much immediately — not ‘How are you managing those payments?’ but ‘Are you stopping those payments right now?’ Basically,” he said. That is the bottom line there.”
“The other point I should emphasis here is that with our follow-up action on those insurers who have higher denial rates or higher dispute rates or some other issues, if we find that there is a problem there, if we find that regulatory action is required, we will publicise that according to our normal procedures. We will do that as a matter of course as part of our follow-up.”
