Life/risk insurers who signed up to the Financial Services Council code of conduct self-reported 23 breaches last financial year, according to the inaugural report of the Life Code Compliance Committee.
However, it was not those 23 self-reported breaches which are likely to keep the committee busy but, rather, a 711 bulk referral from a plaintiff law firm.
The committee’s annual report, released today, said most alleged code breaches related to claims with the vast majority concerning the requirement to make a decision on non-income protection claims within six months.
The independent chair of the Code Compliance Committee, Ann Brown said these breaches highlighted an issue with how claim assessment duration was reported.
The release of the committee’s report has come just days after some scathing assessments of the conduct of major life/risk insurers by counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
The annual report found that 23 code breaches had been self-reported by subscribers, 747 had been referred alleging a total of 785 individual breaches and two code breaches had been identified through the committee’s “proactive targeted investigations into compliance in specific areas”.
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