General insurers are still assessing whether the current wave of new regulations will benefit consumers, IAG Chief Actuary Tim Clark says.

“The idea [is] that there have to be risk management issues [in the industry], despite the industry not seeming to have those risks,” he told the Actuaries Institute regulation conference in Sydney last week.

“There are still questions whether regulations such as Solvency II will work. We are seeing a lot of asset management rules and we still have to see how they will apply.”

Some reforms require more work to see how they will be practically implemented, Mr Clark says.

“We are having to spend more time on the difference between enterprise risk management and regulations such as the internal capital adequacy assessment process.

“The stress and scenario work is being done with boards and, as a result, it has brought boards’ thinking on the topic together.”

Other issues include conflicting regulations and unfair contracts terms, he says.

“We are seeing regulation that will lead to insurers not having certainty of contract. We have a regulation doing something that affects the whole of the industry, so we should be working on this.”

Despite the new regulations, general insurers are still working to tackle affordability and accessibility, Mr Clark says.

“But while the industry thinks it may have rational responses to these issues, consumers don’t understand them. These are big issues for the industry.”