The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says the industry regulator should ease off using formal letters and instead pick up the phone or meet insurers face-to-face to resolve issues.

“We recognise there is a need to use formal letters to engage on certain matters,” ICA says in a submission to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

“However, feedback from our members is that informal channels of communication can generally be more effective at expediting the effective resolution of matters at an early stage, while generating efficiency gains for all parties.”

APRA has requested feedback on its performance last financial year.

ICA says communicating with individual insurers using formal letters or emails can lead to delays, while technical terms can have various interpretations that can cause misunderstandings.

Its submission also suggests APRA consider other methods of engagement that “are more contemporary to the current operating environment” when it comes to compliance and monitoring.

“For example, APRA may wish to explore potential benefits associated with using a centralised online repository system, which would enable users to more efficiently track routine and non-routine APRA regulatory returns and other formal correspondence.”

ICA says the regulator’s performance metrics should include more quantifiable measures, including assessments of written and oral communication with individual entities.

Overall, it says APRA has a sound understanding of current and emerging risks facing the general insurance industry.

“We also consider that APRA has maintained open and transparent supervisory processes and has been generally effective in actively contributing to the continuous improvement of prudential regulation frameworks.”