The Insurance Culture and Conduct Steering Committee (ICCSC) has launched a new action plan aimed at strengthening trust in Singapore’s insurance sector, citing findings from the 2024 Insurance Trust Indicator Study (ITIS).
The plan, crafted by the ICCSC’s general and life insurance sub-committees, identifies key areas for improvement and will gradually introduce initiatives to address these priorities.
The general insurance sub-committee leads the initial phase, focusing on raising consumer awareness, simplifying policy literacy, and improving the claims process.
Meanwhile, the life insurance sub-committee is working on setting higher standards for intermediaries by promoting best practices and clear, consistent standards.
This action plan builds on earlier ICCSC initiatives, including best practice papers, to advance a positive culture within the insurance ecosystem.
“Trust is built over years, and we are taking a long-term approach to continually strengthen trust in Singapore’s insurance industry. This requires the efforts of all parties within the ecosystem, all playing our part and coming together to create a strong culture of ethics, accountability, and customer centricity,” said ICCSC chairperson Dr Khoo Kah Siang.
The ITIS 2024 report provides insights on consumer and business trust across general and life insurance segments:
The ICCSC identified these trust metrics as benchmarks to guide priorities in the action plan, with a particular focus on improving the claims experience, the quality of insurance advice, and communication between insurers and their clients.
The general insurance sub-committee’s initiatives focus on consumer education, better customer service, and transparency in claims handling.
Training initiatives will equip customer service representatives to better understand and address customer needs at first contact.
Insurance agents and independent financial advisors (IFAs) will also be trained to simplify the application process by clarifying required documentation.
The plan emphasises regular updates to clients throughout the claims process to foster trust by improving transparency and responsiveness.
The ICCSC will monitor claims statistics and address dispute cases in collaboration with the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (FIDReC) and the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) to ensure fair handling of consumer grievances.
The life insurance sub-committee’s strategy centres on setting higher standards for advisory services and aligning industry practices.
The committee aims to improve advisory practices through guidelines on hiring and training financial advisory representatives.
In addition, the Life Insurance Intermediaries Best Practice Paper, set for adoption in January 2025, will establish clearer alignment across intermediary practices.
The committee seeks to improve customer communication at significant life stages, using clients’ preferred channels to ensure timely, personalised engagement.
Life insurance initiatives will focus on providing clear instructions and efficient processing to streamline the claims experience, with additional training provided to intermediaries to support these standards.
Since its inception, the ICCSC has released five best practice guidelines and recommended several initiatives to elevate conduct and cultural standards across the insurance industry in Singapore.
These efforts encompass insurers, intermediaries, and financial advisors, with a focus on instilling a higher level of accountability and customer-centric practices.
