APRA Says Claims Data Will Be Made Public

APRA has released an update on its claims data collection project stating it has collected the first batch of data and was likely to publish it in both aggregate and per insurer form.

 APRA is collecting the data in a joint project with ASIC (see: Regulators Begin Collection of Claims Data) which began in May of this year with claims data for the 2016 calendar year having been received by the two regulators by 30 June 2017.

In its latest report on the project, APRA said the two organisations “…are aware that many insurers will have difficulty completing all aspects of the template according to the instructions, and that for many, manual workarounds to provide the requested data will be needed.”

“In keeping with its intention to improve accountability of the industry…it will ultimately be necessary to publish data at an entity level…”

APRA stated that some of these difficulties may stem from legacy products and systems which “…are contributing to the problems experienced by insurers in providing credible, reliable and comparable data to support this data collection and other similar collections”.

It also stated that no entity-level data will be published during this initial phase but this would take place as the project entered its second phase during 2018 “…to allow meaningful comparisons of insurer performance, and with sufficient context to effectively inform consumers and other stakeholders”.

“APRA is generally able to publish aggregate industry-level data without restriction. In keeping with its intention to improve accountability of the industry and inform public discussion about the performance of the life insurance industry, however, it will ultimately be necessary to publish data at an entity level as well,” the regulator stated.

“To support entity-level publication, APRA will consult on determining certain data to be non-confidential, taking into account the benefit to the public from the disclosure of the data and any detriment to commercial interests that the disclosure may cause.”