Life insurers are now required to report on claims and disputes data to APRA with the release of new compulsory standards.

The requirements for claims include measured variables such as insurance type, on-sale status, advice type, cover type, product type, and various sub-categories for specific products or cover types. The reporting form includes 3 additional claims data sheets that provide totals or sub-totals.

The compulsory collection of a more comprehensive range of industry statistics is a key recommendation of a series of Parliamentary and regulatory enquiries, and has many potential benefits for the industry in reinforcing the support it provides to customers and the community more generally.

Both APRA and ASIC have been involved in extensive data gathering in relation to life insurance claims and disputes in recent years, through voluntary participation by the industry, but with the release of Life Insurance Reporting Standard LRS750.0 in October 2018, both regulators consider they have achieved a new critical milestone in delivering accountability and transparency.

Claims professionals can become more familiar with the requirements on the APRA website.

In other regulatory news, ASIC in a submission to the Banking Royal Commission while continuing to express its ongoing reservations about the effects of commission based remuneration, said it is willing to allow the LIF implementation process to run its course and would not be seeking the removal of commission based remuneration before 2021.