The big issue surrounding the collapse of HIH – who knew about its troubles and when – won’t be the focus of a major APRA conference in Sydney today. But maybe they should be.

The conference, which will concentrate on APRA’s new solvency requirements and changes to the Insurance Act, is likely to become the forum for plenty of informal discussion on the HIH debacle.

As the horror stories of personal hardship by complainants and policyholders continue to be rolled out in the media, attention is turning to the level of knowledge many people could have had about HIH’s financial difficulties.

APRA has already denied claims by NSW Treasurer Michael Egan that it dissuaded the state’s Motor Accidents Authority (MAA) from sending in an inspector to HIH last October.

Now leading financial commentator Robert Gottliebsen has weighed in with a claim that warnings about HIH’s performance were common up to 18 months before its collapse.

Writing in The Australian, Gottliebsen said insurance analysts at Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and others “warned anyone around HIH who was listening – big share investors, management, directors, auditors and actuaries plus many insurance brokers and, most importantly, APRA – that HIH was under-providing for losses and endangering the company”.

“They all turned their back on these warnings.”

Tipping a future spate of bankruptcies among doctors, lawyers, accountants and builders, as well as other groups, Gottliebsen said many insurance brokers “preferred telling their clients about the great bulk deals they were negotiating rather than issuing warnings”.

But he acknowledged that about half the brokers’ PI cover was with HIH – a pretty good indication they weren’t aware of the insurer’s financial problems.