Manual error is the top cause of code of practice breaches, accounting for 41% of the total last year, the Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee (IBCC) says in its annual report.

The report says a further 32% of breaches were caused by staff not following processes and procedures. Staff identified one in three of breaches overall, while internal processes or reporting identified one in four.

Breaches of the code affected about 20,500 clients and had a financial impact of about $3.2 million.

The breaches that affected the most clients were: failure to comply with legal obligations (10,394 clients); scope of covered services (3913); buying insurance (2369); and claims handling (1973).

Most breaches were remediated in the short-term by an apology to the client or additional training, while training and changes to processes were the main long-term responses.

The report also provides details on complaints, finding that more than two thirds were resolved within 21 days.

The most common complaints related to home building or commercial property, as well as delays in claim handling, delays in general service and issues with premiums.

As at June 30 June, the code had 441 subscribers with just over 1800 branches. About 71% of the subscribers are classified as micro-businesses employing less than 20 full-time-equivalent staff, while at the other end of the scale 8% employ more than 100 staff.