By Craig Phillips
ZurichFinancial ServicesAustralia has played down Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and Australian Securitiesand Investments Commission (ASIC) scrutiny of some past activities of its general insurance arm — Zurich Australian Insurance.
The comments follow APRA confirming it has been investigating certain past and now unwound reinsurance transactions of Zurich’s general insurance business, in addition to ASIC’s own formal review of certain past reinsurance arrangements made by the general insurance arm.
A Zurich spokesperson, who states the business unit concerned is financially strong, says the matter has no bearing on the group’s present business and only relates to certain past reinsurance arrangements.
“It relates to something that happened a long time ago, it’s four years old and has absolutely nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the business today and certainly doesn’t have anything to do with our managed funds and superannuation business,” the spokesperson says.
According to Zurich, the insurance division nearly doubles APRA’s Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR) solvency test and will continue to meet all of its policyholder obligations.
The comments follow APRA assigning its general manager, diversified institutions division Ramani Venkatramani to investigate the history of the transactions under section 52 of the Insurance Act 1973.
