The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has again called for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to support legislative changes to align insurers with other financial services providers on electronic disclosure.

It says the industry is caught between inconsistencies in the Insurance Act 1984 and the Corporations Act, meaning insurers cannot distribute policies electronically without a client’s consent.

ICA made the call in a recent submission on proposed changes to the evidence metrics ASIC uses to measure its performance.

GM Regulatory John Anning told insuranceNEWS.com.au ICA took the opportunity to ask for some “hard” support on the issue.

ICA made a submission to Treasury a year ago seeking changes to the Insurance Act to allow for electronic disclosure, but it did so without ASIC’s endorsement.

“As the proposed amendment would only facilitate a consistent application of laws to achieve ASIC’s policy position on electronic disclosure, we believe it deserves ASIC’s active support,” the latest submission says.

ICA has also reiterated calls to increase quantifiable metrics to determine a base level from which ASIC’s performance can be measured.

It suggests adapting ASIC’s annual stakeholder survey to aid the development of key performance metrics.

“While we appreciate that identifying quantifiable metrics may be challenging, we believe there is significant benefit to rigorously measuring ASIC’s performance,” the submission says.