Australia’s two major financial services regulators have begun the pilot phase of their project to improve public reporting of life insurance claims.
The pilot project was confirmed by both the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and is aimed at collecting and publishing life insurance claims data on an insurer basis.
According to the two regulators it will include data on claims handling timeframes and dispute levels intended to allow for meaningful comparisons of insurer performance and more effectively inform consumers.
The pilot program comes at the same time as the Insurance in Superannuation Working Group has come up with a set of proposals intended to better inform members of their insurance benefits and entitlements.
Commenting on the pilot program, APRA member, Geoff Summerhayes said it represented an important milestone to establishing a consistent public reporting regime for claims data and claims outcomes.
“Our intention is to collect and publish credible, reliable and comparable data on an insurer-level basis,” he said. “Such information will enable consumers to better understand insurance products and more confidently engage with insurers.”
For the pilot phase, life insurers are requested to complete the data reporting template by 30 June 2017.
APRA said data would be accepted on a ‘best endeavours’ basis, recognising that insurers may need time to adjust their systems to enable them to capture and provide reliable data.
