ACCC Chairman Professor Allan Fels says insurance companies haven’t helped the rising premiums situation with their relentless pursuit of market share and disregard for adequate risk management practices.

The ACCC will release its own report on insurance pricing today in preparation for tomorrow’s national summit of state and federal ministers.

Professor Fels told Channel 9’s Business Sunday that the industry brought some of its problems on itself through “an undue pursuit of market share. To some extent the policies have been brought about by the not very good policies of the industry in the past.

“We don’t favor having price controls or that kind of thing. We do favor monitoring pretty closely competition in the industry and mergers.” 

While the report will look at the whole industry and the causes of the rises in premiums, it will also be broken down into sectors including public liability, household, mortgage and general insurance. Professor Fels said the general insurance market is particularly competitive.

“But the industry is starting to come on to the radar screen in terms of the fact that there is a greater concentration than there used to be, and we’ll be looking at those mergers more carefully,” he said.