Insurers have plenty to worry about: cyber threats, supply chain inflation and a cost-of-living squeeze that has customers questioning every renewal. But Australia’s corporate regulator used the industry’s biggest event of the year to bring the conversation back to something more basic. It wants insurers to fix the paperwork and payouts their customers actually deal with.
Speaking at the Insurance Council of Australia’s annual conference in Sydney on Friday, ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said that with household budgets stretched, getting the basics right was “now more important than ever”. APRA member Suzanne Smith spoke after him in the regulators’ session.
Kirkland has been making this argument since his first appearance at the conference in 2024, and he returned to it last year. This time he had a year of reviews and court results behind him. He also outlined two new pieces of work that brokers handling home and motor business should watch.
Kirkland started with cash settlements and ASIC’s August review, Beyond the payout. At least 63% of the home claims ASIC examined included a full or partial cash payment. After Cyclone Jasper, two of the five insurers reviewed paid cash on...