The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) last week added another notch to its HIH disqualification belt. Former HIH non-executive director and Chairman Geoffrey Cohen was disqualified from being or acting as a director or senior manager of a general insurer under the Insurance Act.

APRA found Mr Cohen  – who held a number of high-profile positions within the company from 1992 until its demise in 2001 – failed to enure that all relevant matters and materials were brought before the board.

This related to Mr Cohen’s failure to ensure that the HIH Board knew about a number of proposals before it with respect to a joint venture with Allianz, a Pacific Eagle transaction and an investment of $2 million in Business Thinking Systems.

Nor did he tell the board former FAI CEO Rodney Adler and HIH CEO Ray Williams had interests in certain proposals, and he also didn’t disclose the conflicts of interest which arose in relation to the Business Thinking Systems investment.

APRA also found Mr Cohen failed to ensure that HIH’s audit committee was independent and that he didn’t address the conflicts of interest spurred by his consultancy arrangement with audit firm Andersens.