{"id":29877,"date":"2015-06-09T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T02:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=29877"},"modified":"2015-06-09T12:04:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T02:04:22","slug":"asic-anxious-to-move-on-insurance-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2015\/06\/09\/asic-anxious-to-move-on-insurance-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"ASIC Anxious to Move on Insurance Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wherever the life insurance industry lands on reforms, the package must be serious and substantial, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has warned.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"ASIC<\/a>
ASIC Deputy Chair, Peter Kell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Addressing the Senate Economics Legislation Committee in Canberra last week, ASIC Deputy Chair, Peter Kell<\/strong>, said the regulator would need to assess any proposals put forward by the insurance industry, to ensure they address the problems, risks and issues raised in Report 413 last year.<\/p>\n

Among the key concerns expressed by ASIC following its review of life insurance advice was the observation that the high up-front commission model is positively correlated with lower quality advice. The industry committed to take action in relation to the findings contained within Report 413, commissioning John Trowbridge to deliver an independent reform proposal, which was delivered in March this year.<\/p>\n

Mr Kell noted that, to date, the industry had yet to put forward a final response to the reform recommendations contained within the Trowbridge Report, but said it was important for all parties that there be an outcome as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

It was widely expected that the FSC would issue a response to the Trowbridge Report to Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, by the end of May. Mr Kell said he had yet to see any such response, but added that he believed the industry was \u201cgetting quite close to a landing as to the elements of that reform\u201d.<\/p>\n

…we are not waiting for the outcomes of this process in terms of addressing misconduct in the industry<\/h6>\n

He also confirmed that ASIC was not holding off pursuing other enforcement and investigative work in the life insurance sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to assure you that we are not waiting for the outcomes of this process in terms of addressing misconduct in the industry. It is a priority area for us,\u201d Mr Kell said.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Mr Kell told the Committee the regulator would be using the best interests duty and related provisions within the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) legislation to pursue wrongdoers in the life insurance advice space:<\/p>\n

\u201cA key provision is the new best interests duty that came in through FoFA, requiring the adviser to act in the best interests of the client. That is particularly important, for example, when you are switching products. When you are advising someone to switch from one life insurance policy to another, it needs to be in the best interests of the client, and there is a series of tests under that. That is one of the measures in our life insurance remit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very high priority for us. We are very focused on it and we have cops on the beat on this issue,\u201d ASIC Chair, Greg Medcraft<\/strong>, added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wherever the life insurance industry lands on reforms, the package must be serious and substantial, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-compliance-regulation","category-remuneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}