A life insurer failed to tell policyholders about premium changes, breaching its obligations under the industry’s code of practice.

The breach occurred when the insurer updated its letter templates in preparation for the 2023 code taking effect on July 1 last year, a Life Code Compliance Committee determination says.

The business was prevented from adding the updated letter templates to its claims administration platform due to a system problem, so it did not tell affected customers how their premiums could change in the future and how to access the code if they made a claim.

The committee has the power to name insurers if a specific sanction has been imposed, but not in determinations relating to breaches.

“When the insurer reported the breaches, it did not have an interim process in place to prevent additional breaches, and it was unclear when it could fix the system issue,” the determination says.

The insurer proposed a remediation plan and the code committee worked with the business on an interim fix requiring claims assessors to manually send updated claims acknowledgment notices.

The breaches continued for four months until the temporary measure was in place.

“Our assessment and investigation confirmed that the insurer had breached ... the code,” the determination says.

“In confirming the breaches, we found that the breaches … were systemic because they impacted multiple products and customers.

“This matter reiterates that identifying breaches early and acting quickly to address them is crucial in minimising and preventing customer detriment or harm.”

Click here for the determination.