The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority  (APRA) has released the final specifications for the National Claims and Policies Database (NCPD), which has been introduced in a bid to create greater transparency for public liability, professional risk and medical indemnity classes of insurance.

But there’s one surprise. The regulator says it will put the ongoing management of the NCPD out to tender and expects to issue a request for tender late next month. This means it has to defer the date by which insurers will be required to provide data for the initial collection period – January 1 2003 to June 30 2004 – from August 31 2004.

“The new date by which data will be required to be submitted will be determined and advised to insurers at the conclusion of the tender process,” APRA said.

The regulator hopes the NCPD will assist insurers to better price risks and develop products that are “more appropriate to the current market”. The database will also enable the Government, community and insurers to “identify changes that might reduce the incidence or lower costs of claims for these risks”.

Developed at the request of Assistant Treasurer Helen Coonan, the data specification for the NCPD has been the subject of two rounds of consultation between APRA, the industry and other stakeholders.

APRA is also developing a set of draft standard reports that will be produced from the NCPD, based on aggregated data. Consultation with stakeholders on these draft reports will take place between April and June 2004.  The first reports are expected to be available within two months of the date by which data for the initial NCPD collection is submitted by insurers.