Insurers are in talks with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over its controversial north Queensland home and contents comparison website, with some threatening not to participate.

Consulting group Finity has won the $1.6 million tender to develop and maintain the site.

Insurers contacted by insuranceNEWS.com.au say they are talking to ASIC about how information will be collected and used.

Finity must have the website ready by next month, enabling consumers to compare insurers’ performance on price, product features and claims-handling complaints.

insuranceNEWS.com.au understands the website of Suncorp-owned Apia was recently crashed by Finity drawing data from it for the comparison site.

Finity will not comment on the contract and Suncorp refuses to confirm the report, but a Suncorp spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the company is “actively talking to ASIC about issues that have arisen during the development process”.

“Suncorp has long been against the introduction of aggregators because we don’t see any consumer benefit.”

Insurers object to the sites because of their focus on price, and they have also expressed concern that the way data is obtained could give outside parties access to commercially sensitive pricing information.

The contract to operate the service runs from last December to December 2017.

Youi, which has a significant share of the north Queensland domestic market, says it is in talks with ASIC over matters such as the data platform and has not made a decision on whether it will participate on the site.

An IAG spokesman says the company believes “this type of site is limited because it focuses mainly on price, so it doesn’t give customers all the information to enable them to choose the right insurance for their needs”.

“These sites can provide inaccurate and potentially misleading information to customers as they can’t take into account different benefits and features of individual policies.”

He says the sites do not reflect claims experience, which is particularly important in north Queensland because of its vulnerability to flood, storm and cyclone.