General insurers are being urged to comment on a discussion paper examining the issuing of product disclosure statements (PDS) during telephone sales.

The Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) paper outlines concerns raised over the legislation requiring a PDS to be supplied at the time or before a quote can be given to a caller. In most instances this means information has to be posted to the customer before a quote can be supplied.

Insurers say this process limits their ability to market products to retail clients in an efficient and cost-effective way.

ASIC’s paper suggests altering the requirement to allow quotes to be provided without a PDS during phone calls. Instead the insurer or authorised representative would need to give the PDS “as soon as possible” and before the client applies for the policy.

While ASIC is calling for feedback from industry stakeholders on whether the current system is limiting their ability to market products, it also wants to make sure any changes wouldn’t have any detrimental impacts on consumers.

The regulator says there is currently insufficient evidence as to whether the limitations on providing a quote in a telephone call is a widespread enough problem to warrant a change to the arrangements.

Submissions are open until December 9.