Sydney-based broker Rural & General Insurance Brokers (R&GIB) has taken its defamation case against the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to the ACT Supreme Court. Its case in the NSW District Court was discontinued earlier this month after the judge in the case set aside R&GIB’s subpoenas as an abuse of process. R&GIB immediately re-filed in the ACT. 

R&GIB first sued APRA in NSW after the regulator warned Australian consumers in an April media release about buying policies from Rural & General International Insurance, which is based in Vanuatu. It said R&G International Insurance “is registered in Vanuatu as an exempt general insurer and is not authorised to offer insurance to the public in either Vanuatu or Australia under the conditions of its registration”.

Following our report last week on the NSW case being withdrawn, Sunrise Exchange News received a series of faxes and emails from R&GIB which ranged from abusive to informative. Among the documents sent to us was a copy of the Vanuatu Insurance Act.

R&GIB alleges that APRA defamed it by stating that the broker was offering and providing insurance to the public on behalf of R&G International Insurers, which was not authorised to insure risks or solicit business; that R&GIB aids and abets an unauthorised insurance company to solicit insurance business from the public; that it has so conducted itself that APRA has concerns about its activities; and that by selling R&GII policies to the public, R&GIB caused and warranted APRA to issue a warning about it to consumers.

R&GIB says it has received assurances from the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission that R&G International Insurance is trading legally, and that APRA has not provided it with any documentation which proves it is not.

At the same time, APRA has not removed the media release in question from its website, which would tend to indicate that the regulator is not going to back away.

We await developments.