Brokers may not need to worry too much about the recently announced Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
The government made the move to form a Royal Commission by releasing a broad set of terms of reference at the end of November.
Dallas Booth,
NIBA CEO, told Insurance Business that while brokers could be in the firing line thanks to the terms of reference, the 12-month timeline of the commission and the need to focus on serious misconduct could spare brokers.
“With the timeframe and the need to concentrate on the important stuff, I am not sure this will involve insurance brokers at all because there is no evidence of systemic or serious misconduct by insurance brokers,” Booth said. “I think there will be things the royal commission will be focusing on outside of general insurance broking.
“But nevertheless, this is an opportunity for NIBA to again tell the world the good work that brokers do, the way they act in their clients’ best interests and the way they become the advocate for the client when a claim has to be made.”
Booth pointed to
speeches made by Peter Kell,
John Price, lead ombudsman, general insurance at the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and Insurance Brokers Code of Practice Committee chairman Michael Gill, at the 2017 NIBA Convention, which highlighted the lack of evidence of misconduct in the broking community.
Booth also praised the systems of redress available to clients of brokers which help the community in the event of a broker collapse.
“Clients of brokers are very well protected and I think that is a really good news story and one we should try to tell,” Booth continued.
Since the release of the terms of reference, former high court judge, Kenneth Hayne, has been announced as the commissioner but much speculation remains on the true focus the commission will take.
Booth said that NIBA will assess whether it needs to provide “background information” to the commission on the insurance industry and wait to see how the commission itself indicates matters of interest.
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