Nib Holdings hopes to resume “as soon as possible” travel insurance sales in Australia and New Zealand once it has found a new underwriter.

The business announced last week its Nib Travel arm would temporarily stop selling to residents in the two markets from tomorrow onwards because current underwriting arrangements are coming to an end without naming the insurance provider.

A spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au today that Axa XL is the underwriter and that the agreement ceases today.

“As such, we have been exploring new underwriting arrangements in the Australian and New Zealand market for some time,” the spokesman said.

“Nib Travel has been exploring new underwriting arrangements across all regions to ensure they are cost effective and support our future growth ambitions.

“Refreshing underwriting agreements on a regular basis helps ensure they deliver the most appropriate commercial outcomes while also meeting the needs of our travellers.”

The sales suspension applies across all its brands as well as products distributed through its white label partners.

The move will not impact current travellers and all policies purchased before tomorrow. Employees within Nib Travel will not be affected either.

“The ending of current arrangements is obviously disruptive but we’ll emerge in better shape as travel and market conditions recover,” Nib MD Mark Fitzgibbon said last week.

“We plan to resume selling travel insurance to Australian and New Zealand residents as soon as possible to support our customers.”

The business confirmed international sales presently make up more than 75% of total Nib Travel insurance sales and will not be affected by the move to pause selling to Australian and New Zealand residents.

It says there will not be a material financial impact on the Nib Group.

Australia’s tough COVID border curbs have severely affected Nib Travel, which made a loss for the second straight year.

The travel arm reported an underlying operating loss of $13.6 million in the last financial year and $19.7 million in the preceding period.