Regulatory response – What you need to know about claims as a financial service

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The Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Bill 2020 was passed by Parliament on 10 December 2020. It covers a range of reforms, in line with the revised regulatory timetable and includes claims handling and settling services for insurance products regulated by ASIC (Claims as a Financial Service). ASIC also issued a draft information

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14 Dec 2020

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Deferred sales model for add-on insurance

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Finity and The Fold Legal released an update on the Royal Commission’s recommendations into add-on insurance in July 2019. After two separate consultation papers, Treasury has recently released: An Exposure Draft Bill; Exposure Draft Regulations; An Explanatory Memorandum; and An Explanatory Statement. The consultation period for these draft documents ends on 28 February 2020. Assuming that

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03 Mar 2020

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Royal Commission response: Add-on insurance

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Sale of so-called ‘add-on insurances’ has been widely criticised in Australia for some time. Here’s why: High pressure sales methods Poor value products, poorly understood Sometime a consumer is not even able to claim on the product Very high commissions for distributors Difficulty for buyers in making a considered decision Regulatory scrutiny has been intense

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10 Jul 2019

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Royal Commission response: Design and distribution obligations

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In the last sitting week of parliament, the first piece of legislation responding to the Hayne Report was passed. New product design and distribution obligations will apply to insurers (and underwriting agencies) from 5 April 2021 requiring them to develop and document a target market determination for each retail client product. New obligations will ensure that product

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31 May 2019

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Royal Commission Response: Enforceable codes

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This note discusses the Hayne Royal Commission recommendations 4.9 and 4.10 that the law should be amended: to provide for enforceable provisions of industry codes for the establishment and imposition of mandatory industry codes to empower the Code Governance Committee to impose sanctions for breaches of the Code. With respect to GI, Hayne recommended that

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09 May 2019

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Royal Commission Response – Claims as financial service

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The recommendation to regulate claims handling as a ‘financial service’ impacts both general insurance and life insurance, although this analysis is limited to general insurance. The change may be more far-reaching in its impact for the general insurance industry than initially thought. A government response could be quick The government announced in February that it would move quickly

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20 Mar 2019

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