Financial services businesses need to be proactive in meeting community expectations as regulators sharpen their focus on culture and behaviour, Suncorp executives have told brokers and planners at a summit for intermediaries.

“I think they are not looking at the black letter of the law any more,” Chief Risk Officer Insurance Corinne Glasby told the Suncorp Synergy Summit in Melbourne on Thursday.

“They’re really looking at the intent, and what is the perception from a customer’s point of view, and are they getting the right outcome?”

Ms Glasby says regulators will intervene when the sector or companies fail to ensure high standards are met.

“If the perception is we are not doing it ourselves, that is when they will come in,” she said. “It is really about that social licence to operate in the industries we are in.”

Incoming Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman James Shipton said this month he will work on industry culture and trust when he starts his five-year tenure on February 1.

Suncorp Insurance CEO Gary Dransfield told the conference the award of a Nobel Prize to behavioural economics expert Richard Thaler highlights a wider shift in approach.

“We can see now that behavioural economics and the use of it is something conduct regulators are going to focus on,” he said.

Examples include a review of add-on insurance sales through motor dealers, with regulators increasingly looking at “nudges and influences” that cause consumers to make decisions that may not be in their best interests.

“Starting to look across and in our businesses and value chains for those things would [serve] us well,” Mr Dransfield said.

He warns the regulatory focus may turn to insurance brokers, following attention given to financial planners and mortgage brokers.

“It would be unwise to be complacent, irrespective of the differences between distribution channels and product lines,” he said.