Urgent talks are being held in Auckland this week in an attempt to resolve a stand-off between the Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ) and the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF).

Earlier this year ANZIIF decided to split its Australian and New Zealand industry awards in two and run a separate event in New Zealand, cutting directly across the identical event IBANZ has been running since 2007.

IBANZ CEO Gary Young told insuranceNEWS.com.au last week that he and local ANZIIF board representatives have agreed to talks this week to “explore the possibility of working together on a joint awards event for the New Zealand insurance industry”.

ANZIIF first announced in April its intention of holding its own New Zealand awards event, duplicating most of the IBANZ awards. It’s understood ANZIIF management did not discuss its move with the brokers’ association before making the announcement, and has only recently addressed the conflict issue.

The move, and the way in which it has been handled, has generated considerable criticism of the Melbourne-based training institute in New Zealand insurance circles.

Mr Young said in April that “it would be interesting to understand their reasoning, because they weren’t interested before IBANZ began their own awards”.

On November 14 insuranceNEWS.com.au submitted written questions to ANZIIF, asking why it is launching a competing insurance awards event in New Zealand; what would make its event different from the established IBANZ event; and whether the NZ industry trade associations have been supportive of its move.

ANZIIF has not yet responded, despite promises to do so.

Mr Young said today he is hopeful of a successful outcome to the talks this week, “thus avoiding the prospect of having two competing insurance industry awards”.