If you’ve ever wondered what the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) terms “banned”, “disqualified” and “permanently banned” actually mean, wonder no more. APRA Chairman John Laker told Sunrise Exchange News yesterday the terms “essentially all mean the same thing”.

Former HIH executive Ross Eade is the latest individual to be banned/disqualified by APRA over the insurer’s $5.3 billion collapse.

The regulator has banned Mr Eade – who held a number of senior positions with HIH during his career, including GM Finance and Operations, and Director of the Corporate Division – from acting as a director or senior manager of a general insurer under the Insurance Act 1973.

Dr Laker says the different terms are just a result of inconsistencies in language used by the people who write the regulator’s media releases. But in all cases a disqualification is permanent unless stipulated otherwise, or an individual applies and is successful in having the disqualification overturned.

APRA says Mr Eade “failed to act in the best interests of HIH and its policyholders” by advising HIH’s former external actuary, David Slee, to remove cautionary remarks from a 1997 version of his year-end actuarial assessment concerning the risks associated with excluding a prudential margin from the liability estimate.

It also alleges Mr Eade signed a letter instructing Mr Slee to exclude a prudential margin from his 1997 liability valuation, and didn’t inform the HIH board of risks associated with excluding a prudential margin.

The regulator has already banned a number of HIH executives since the group’s 2001 collapse, including Rodney Adler, Ray Williams, Charles Abbott, Stephen Burroughs, Terry Cassidy, Bill Howard, David Slee, Tim Mainprize and Geoff Trahair.