The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has approved amendment to the terms of reference for Insurance Brokers Disputes Ltd (IBD), so that disputes involving small business package policies up to a claim limit of $5000 can be dealt with.

IBD GM Daniela Kirchlinde said retail clients can also elect to have complaints conciliated and determined by IBD if their claim in regards to a business pack policy is above $5000 but they agree in writing that the claim be reduced to $5000 only.

The change was based on concerns that the relevant definition of “retail client” in the Corporations Act was product-specific to mainly domestic policies and did not include small business policies. Therefore, nearly all insurance policies used by small business operations, other than commercial motor vehicle policies, could not be determined by IBD.

The IBD board has also agreed that all complaints over business pack policies lodged since January 1 this year should be allowed to lodge their complaint again. “We believe that services provided by insurance brokers will become more important for small business,” Ms Kirchlinde said. “It’s therefore reasonable that IBD is now able to deal with complaints over small business policies.”