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Analysis

Recovery reset: after a false start better results beckon

25 October 2021

An expected recovery in insurers’ profitability didn’t go to plan last financial year but with premiums rising and pandemic business interruption claim risks factored in, the anticipated rebound is likely back on track...

Earthquake shakes up risk complacency

04 October 2021

The partial collapse of a building front in Melbourne and shaking felt in several states following the Victorian earthquake is a warning against complacency about a risk for which Australians are generally unprepared...

Dissecting ASIC's enforcement approach after conspicuous omission

30 August 2021

Has the corporate regulator gone soft? The Australian Securities and Investments Commission may have inadvertently given that impression with the release last week of its annual report outlining the regulator’s priorities for the next four years...

October blitz: Hayne reforms steam ahead

23 August 2021

Another set of Hayne royal commission reforms is set to come into effect in October, building on other changes implemented since the start of the year such as the application of unfair contract terms laws to insurance contracts in April...

IAG and Suncorp diverge in latest earnings results

16 August 2021

Headline financial results last week presented diverging stories for Suncorp and IAG, with the former basking in a better-than-expected outcome and IAG hit by organisational and risk management failures...

AFCA's candid self-reflection as review concludes

02 August 2021

With just weeks now to wait for the report from an independent review of its operations by Treasury, the tone of Australian Financial Complaints Authority ombudsmen at a two-day member forum last week was conciliatory and amenable...

Industry challenges highlighted as IAG resets

26 July 2021

IAG jumped out the gates early to deliver preliminary full-year financial results last week and in doing so has offered a window into some of the issues that the industry is dealing with as insurance affordability and availability concerns show few signs of easing...

The post-pandemic world: 'scales tipped' in industry’s favour

19 July 2021

The coronavirus is proving to be a formidable foe to crush. More than a year into the public health crisis, the world is still struggling to hold the virus at bay as more infectious variants emerge, seeding new waves of transmissions...

Eradicating groupthink

12 July 2021

Before the collapse of 158-year old banker Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the subprime loans fiasco, diversity and inclusion wasn’t top of the agenda in financial services...

New code sets up insurance for a post-Hayne landscape

05 July 2021

In an exercise that took longer than usual to complete because of the COVID disruption, Australia’s insurers finally have a new code of practice in place – one that has been comprehensively updated and rewritten to provide for much-improved consumer protections in the post-Hayne royal commission landscape...

The industry survives another barrage from MPs

28 June 2021

Friday’s hearing of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics – a body which has previously demonstrated a sketchy understanding of how the insurance industry works – started with an announcement from committee Chair Tim Wilson that he and Insurance Council CEO Andrew Hall are "personal friends"...

Starting gun fired on cyclone pool design discussions

07 June 2021

After a decade of governments spinning their wheels on the idea of a cyclone reinsurance pool, Treasury now has to speed ahead with its foot to the floor in turning the concept into reality within an expected one-year timeframe...