The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has backed the Financial Ombudsman Service's (FOS's) external dispute resolution process based on the number of disputes the ombudsman resolved by agreement in the past year.
Pointing to the recent FOS 2011-12 annual review the ICA noted that although general insurance disputes rose (up 35 per cent to 10,423) they remained steady as a proportion of overall disputes (28 per cent).
This was despite an "unprecedented" number of claims due to several natural disasters, with the ICA noting that very few had to be resolved by external dispute resolution. The FOS review stated that of the 36,049 total disputes resolved in 2011-12 just 8 per cent were by FOS decision.
"Of the cases that FOS handled, many related to the size of settlements and not declined claims, and more than half of the disputes were decided in favour of the insurance companies," the ICA added.
The ICA also stated it had brought forward the triennial review of the General Insurance Code of Practice by 12 months following issues raised by consumer groups.
It also said it would next year launch a program to improve consumer understanding of general insurance and help reduce the customer confusion.
