A project team made up of representatives from the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and the Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ) will be formed this week to discuss holding a joint excellence awards event in the country.

insuranceNEWS.com.au reported last week that ANZIIF has been working since April to hold its own awards event in New Zealand as a rival to the industry-wide event managed by IBANZ since 2007.

IBANZ CEO Gary Young said today the association’s board has agreed to discussions that will lead to a joint venture awards event, “subject to a few issues being sorted out satisfactorily”.

It’s understood a major point of difference is the method of judging. IBANZ uses the services of an independent body set up to assess submissions and single out winners, while ANZIIF uses a judging panel.

“If we can agree on ways around the differences we’ll go ahead with a joint venture,” Mr Young said.

ANZIIF has not responded to written questions submitted by insuranceNEWS.com.au on November 14 asking why it decided to run a competing awards event in New Zealand.