The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) will soon begin a trial in which insurers disclose the previous year’s premium in renewal letters.

Consumer groups campaigned for the move in June last year, but ICA said customers could easily get the information from prior renewal notices or bank records.

However, the trial was among 16 recommendations made by the independent Effective Disclosure Taskforce last October, and ICA says it will “shortly commence” the project.

“ICA and its members are still progressing through the taskforce’s recommendations, and are in discussions to determine how the trial will be conducted and when it will commence,” a spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Gerard Brody has welcomed the move.

“The finance sector has suffered from some concerns about trust and this is one way to counter that,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “Too many consumers are hit by the lazy tax – they do not shop around every year even though premiums might have gone up.

“The purpose of this [trial] is that it puts some pressure on the insurance industry to remain competitive.”