The European Union ban on gender-specific underwriting could happen in Australia, a major insurer has warned.

Swiss Re MD Mark Senkevics says his company was caught off guard when the ban on using gender as an underwriting measure was first proposed in Europe.

“We subsequently campaigned against it but now are having to find ways to manage this judgement,” he told the Financial Services Council Life Insurance Conference last week.

“We hope it doesn’t come here, but personally I think it might. So we have to be prepared.”

The ban came into effect after a small Belgian lobby group proposed the elimination of gender bias and won the support of the European Court. As it is a judgement handed down by the court, there is no appeal procedure and insurers across Europe now have to implement the changes.

Each EU member country has to turn the judgement into law, and it is highly unlikely any would refuse to do this.

Mr Senkevics says the judgement creates some problems with reserving, but Swiss Re is still uncertain what the full impact will be on ratings.

“We see implications for products, technology and marketing to remove the gender bias in any of these areas,” he said. “This will be expensive.”

The judgement will create more complex underwriting and women will have to pay more for insurance, Mr Senkevics says.