The National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) has warned that any changes to licensing arrangements or regulation as a result of financial services reforms should not be automatically applied to the insurance industry, according to a submission to the Joint Parliamentary Inquiry into financial services and products.
There is no evidence that a change in insurance licensing is warranted as a result of the failure of some managed investment products, and regulatory changes to overcome recent managed investment scheme collapses would be inappropriate for insurance brokers, the submission stated.
“NIBA would be most concerned if solutions to perceived problems with managed investment schemes or advice given to the public about such schemes were to be automatically applied to risk insurance products,” they added.
NIBA reminded the inquiry that an Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation into compliance and remuneration in 2005 did not find any evidence of abuse of remuneration systems, including recommending insurance products based on the size of commissions.
