New Insurance Industry Oversight Council Formed

media release

19 August 2015

New Insurance Industry Oversight Council Formed

The Insurance Council of New Zealand, whose members underwrite 95% of the general insurance market, that is, other than health or life insurance, has revised its Fair Insurance Code and appointed three well known New Zealanders to monitor compliance with it.

The revised Code sets high standards for companies to uphold and includes timeframes for addressing claims and complaints as well as a requirement for insurers to respond reasonably to any non-disclosure of material information by the insured. The Code comes into effect on 1 January 2016.

The Code will be monitored by a new Code Compliance Committee which will be chaired by the Chief Executive of ICNZ Tim Grafton. The Code covers all dealings between ICNZ’s members and consumers and small and medium enterprises.

The Committee’s role is to monitor breaches of ICNZ’s Fair Insurance Code, report data on the number of breaches of the Code to the ICNZ Board, investigate unresolved significant breaches of the Code and make recommendations to the Board on those breaches.

Rt Hon Sir Anand Satyanand, Hon David Caygill and Dr David McGee CNZM QC have accepted membership of the Committee.

Sir Anand Satyanand, former Governor-General, is a former Judge, Ombudsman and legal practitioner with extensive governance experience. He reviewed the Banking Ombudsman scheme that led to the independent framework it operates under today and until recently he was a patron of the New Zealand chapter of Transparency International.

Former Cabinet Minister Hon David Caygill retired from politics in 1996 and has since held a range of senior governance roles including Chair of the ACC and Chair of the Electricity Commission. In 2010, he was appointed as one of the Commissioners at Environment Canterbury. He acted as the peer reviewer for the Fair Insurance Code.

Dr McGee was appointed an Ombudsman in 2007 after 22 years as Clerk of the House. He retired as an Ombudsman in 2013. He is the author of Parliamentary Practice in New Zealand which is the authoritative guide to parliamentary procedure in New Zealand.

“I am delighted that such high calibre individuals who bring a vast amount of skills and experience have joined the Code Compliance Committee,” Mr Grafton said.

ENDS

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