The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ) have split over the New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards.

Each will now conduct their own awards event in Auckland – and within two weeks of each other.

Last year’s awards night in Auckland was the first joint event, replacing the previous New Zealand awards event that had been run by IBANZ for several years.

IBANZ CEO Gary Young says his association had insisted after the joint event that this year’s function should contain a number of amendments in the way it was run, “but these were either ignored or rejected”.

ANZIIF’s New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards will be held in Auckland on October 24, ahead of the November 6 awards presentation IBANZ will hold.

Contacted for comment, Mr Young told insuranceNEWS.com.au he was not aware that ANZIIF had scheduled its own awards event for two weeks before what was to have been the joint ANZIIF-IBANZ awards night.

He says the ANZIIF announcement of its new event came about an hour after IBANZ informed the institute it would not participate.

A statement from ANZIIF says the 2012 awards were “highly successful” in terms of garnering record participation and attendance.

“As the largest professional educator and membership body for the New Zealand insurance industry, ANZIIF is committed to ensuring the success and growth of this market, its professionals and students.”