Rural & General Insurance Broking (R&G) has finally scored a hit – albeit a minor one – in its long-running battle with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

In the latest skirmish, APRA has failed to thwart a $40 million defamation action brought against it by R&G. Last week the ACT Supreme Court dismissed an application by APRA to force the broker to put up security to pay APRA’s court costs. The regulator said it was concerned that if R&G lost the case, it wouldn’t have sufficient resources to pay costs. The court thought otherwise.

R&G says it is angered by APRA’s comments that consumers should be wary when dealing with the broker because it was selling insurance policies on behalf of a Vanuatu-based unauthorised foreign insurer (UFI), Rural & General International Insurance. R&G maintains it’s not related to the UFI in any way, apart from sharing a name.

R&G also says it’s not related to failed local insurer Rural & General Insurance (R&GI), which is currently in run-off.

Interestingly, former R&GI executive Charles Pratten is still described as R&G’s “principal”. Last week he told The Age newspaper that APRA’s actions over R&G operations had “wiped 90% of the business”.

“As soon as APRA put out their media releases, the other brokers and agents just ran scared,” he said.

In a media statement titled “APRA stung again”, R&G says its past dealings with the regulator have seen  “APRA’s integrity… severely damaged”. It says the biggest blow to the regulator was “having to admit that certain APRA officers had improperly conspired to bring about the proceedings”.