The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) will voice its concerns over new product design and distribution laws to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

It remains unclear how laws passed by Parliament last week will apply to mass-marketed financial products such as home and motor insurance, particularly at renewal time.

“ICA is meeting ASIC in the near future to discuss how ASIC’s regulatory guidance might resolve its members’ concerns,” spokesman Campbell Fuller told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Insurers say customers will be inconvenienced if information must be re-collected at each renewal and, if not applied sensibly, the regime could increase costs for insurers by more than $250 million a year.

Product issuers, including insurers, are required to specify appropriate target markets, and distributers must act to ensure products are sold accordingly under the new laws.

The requirement will take effect in two years.

The new laws also give ASIC stronger powers to intervene if it identifies a risk of significant consumer detriment from the sale of a financial product. Those powers take effect almost immediately.

The laws were proposed as part of the Government’s 2015 response to Financial System Inquiry.