Yet another high-profile victim of the HIH collapse felt the lash of the prudential regulator last week. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) disqualified senior barrister Robert Stitt, QC, from being a director of an insurer or a senior manager of a foreign general insurer in Australia.

Mr Stitt was a non-executive director of HIH Insurance and its predecessors between January 20 1992 and March 15 2001. He was also a member of the HIH audit committee from 1992 until 2001 and the human resources committee from its inception in 1993. In October 1998 he became a director of HIH Investment Holdings, a subsidiary of HIH.

APRA says Mr Stitt failed to exercise his powers and discharge his duties with the degree of care and diligence required of a person in the positions he held.

It says he failed in his duty as a director by not requiring appropriate analysis by HIH management of several transactions, including the $300 million purchase of FAI Insurance and a joint venture arrangement with Allianz Australia Insurance.

He also failed to understand the provisioning of outstanding claims liabilities and failed in his duty as a member of the HIH audit committee by approving a misleading note in the company’s 2000 financial statements relating to a National Indemnity Company contract.

APRA has disqualified 26 individuals in connection with HIH Insurance, five of whom are involved in appeals with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.