Zurich Financial Services Australia has announced the appointment of Matt Paterson to the newly created position of Chief Claims Officer Australia and New Zealand.
The insurer says that reporting directly to Chief Executive Officer, Justin Delaney, the Chief Claims Officer will have “…enterprise-wide responsibilities for all claims teams and functions across Zurich’s Retail Life, Group Life and General Insurance business segments.”
Paterson has more than 20 years’ experience across customer service, financial services, telecommunications and consulting. Most recently, he was Group Chief Operations Officer for nib, with responsibility for operational contact centres and claims functions across the group.
Earlier in his career, Paterson was awarded the AFR Boss ‘Young Executive of the Year’ (2009) and the Customer Service Institute of Australia ‘Leader of the Year’ (2007).
Delaney says that as the only major composite – life and general – insurer in the market “…this appointment represents an important structural change to our team and our business more broadly.”
He adds that a positive and efficient customer claims experience “…is core to our promise as an insurer. Bringing our claims teams together into one collective function provides a unique opportunity to integrate and scale our claims management and service delivery functions.”
Delaney notes too that “…more importantly, with representation on our senior leadership team, claims will have even greater visibility and focus to deliver improved experiences and efficiency for our individual and commercial customers.”
The company says that since 1 January 2022, claims handling and settling has been a fully regulated activity and included in the definition of a ‘financial service’ under the Corporations Act 2001 with an obligation to provide services efficiently, honestly and fairly.
