An ethicist who works in insurance says the industry should divorce itself from the rest of financial services and build a new culture based around “moral courage”.

Writing in the latest edition of Insurance News magazine, Dominic McMullan says the industry has become “obsessed with compliance”, which “has everything to do with ticking boxes so you don’t get into trouble”.

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Mr McMullan, who works as a business development manager with a major insurer, has a Masters degree in professional and applied ethics from the University of Melbourne.

He says that in the wake of the Hayne royal commission, people in the insurance industry should “stop talking about recovering trust” and focus on “building a new reputation as something different”.

Noting that insurance doesn’t need to identify with the banks and other parts of financial services, he says the industry “should signal this break by training people to be ethical operators rather than box-tickers, to act with consideration for our customers [and] have the confidence to criticise those who act without that consideration”.

“Trustworthiness is a much tougher goal to have than merely being compliant,” Mr McMullan says.

The full article, with his rationale and conclusions, can now be accessed here.

The latest issue of Insurance News magazine is now available online. It includes a special section on insurtech, with our cover article focusing on male domination of the sector. Is this building an unconscious bias in insurance products?

Our wide range of articles includes a comparison of the top three insurers’ financial performance, a discussion on how brokers can deal with new challenges arising from the Hayne report, and an interview with a leading broker who believes in spreading the word about a job he loves.

And with a federal election looming, Insurance News has comments from the politicians directly responsible for financial services to comment on the industry’s issues and future directions.

Enjoy!

Click here to read the full magazine.