The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has launched discussion papers in collaboration with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) seeking feedback on proposals to enhance data collections for life and general insurance. 

“APRA and ASIC plan to collect more granular data as part of the Insurance Data Transformation project, which will enable regulators, policymakers and insurers to undertake a more comprehensive assessment of the risks facing the industries,” the regulators say. 

“The aim of this project is to collect data that will enable regulators, policymakers, and insurers to undertake a more comprehensive assessment of prudential and conduct risks facing the industry.” 

The regulators say existing data collections have generated a significant volume of valuable information on the general insurance industry, but it is increasingly apparent that the aggregated nature of data can limit its usefulness. 

“The [regulators] regularly experience ‘insights gaps’ where the data are either inflexible or insufficient to effectively identify key issues and emerging trends that could lead to prudential and conduct risks and harms,” APRA and ASIC said. 

“Such limitations inhibit the [regulators’] strategic drive for data-enabled decision making.” 

The paper says the regulators are proposing to design a collection with both “depth” and “breadth” components, primarily to support a phased implementation. 

Breadth focus refers to a core set of data points collected at the transaction level across all products to provide a high-level overview of the industry and depth focus refers to a product-specific collection that builds upon the breadth collection by collecting additional data points tailored to the relevant product. 

Under the proposed phased rollout approach, home and public and products liability insurance will be the first in scope for the depth collection. 

“They have been selected as a priority to assist with work being progressed on availability and affordability issues, and to align with current industry strategic focus areas,” the paper says. 

Closing date for submissions is December 22. 

Click here for submission details.