At least 300 insurance brokers are trading illegally, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
ASIC research has revealed that at least 300 people advertising as insurance brokers in the Yellow Pages are unregistered.
Peter Kell, the director of ASIC’s office of consumer protection, says that an unregistered person conducting the business of an insurance broker was breaking the law.
Kell says ASIC has written to the unregistered brokers giving them until April 19 to register. Insurance brokers in Australia must be licensed and registered by ASIC.
“The benefit for consumers of dealing with a registered broker is that they are dealing with someone who has professional indemnity insurance and belongs to an approved complaints resolution scheme,” Kell says.
