The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says its Enforcement Priorities program for this year include “misleading insurance pricing promises” as the industry comes under pressure over failures to honour pricing discounts.

“ASIC is committed to being a strong and targeted law enforcement agency, and an active litigator against misconduct,” the regulator said.

“We continue to make the best use of our regulatory tools to identify and disrupt conduct that harms consumers and ensure that individual accountability is given appropriate attention in our investigations.”

Deputy Chair Sarah Court says the regulator won’t hesitate to take action to protect consumers where poor conduct has been identified.

“We will also remain focused on helping industry to meet their legal obligations including by providing simple, effective and easy-to-access guidance,” she said.

The regulator has previously flagged insurers’ pricing actions after ordering general insurers to review their systems and risk controls.

ASIC’s other Deputy Chair Karen Chester told the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics in October last year that customer remediation over failures to deliver promised premium discounts have reached $760 million.

“This is a very recent activity. This is not something that was from the Hayne royal commission; this is recent conduct,” she said.