Financial Rights supports the removal of Regulation 7.1.33 of the Corporation Regulations 2001 and using existing legislative powers to define the activity of handling or settling an insurance claim as a ‘financial service’ for the purposes of the Corporations Act 2001.
Financial Rights believes increased training requirements on insurers and claims handling is justified. Increased obligations to train claims managers is not a burden it is one of the key points of the exercise.
If there are any requirements that are fundamentally irrelevant to claims managers in the training standards set by ASIC or other regulators, these can and should be adjusted to ensure that claims managers are trained appropriately with respect to the extent that their roles involves any personal or general advice.
Also, we do not accept that the cost of compliance should fall on consumers. Insurers’ and their shareholders profits have been propped up by a system that has provided significant advantage to them against the interests of their customers.
