Minister promises process of review of sales incentives
January 30, 2019
In this piece on RiskInfo Minister Faafoi and the Honorable Grant Roberston appear to outline a separate consultation process to run alongside the insurance contract law review process, later this year. This process is to review sales incentives in the light of the recent report on the life insurance sector. Link.
Minister of Finance, Hon Grant Robertson, highlighted four changes the Government wishes to see:
- Clearer duties on banks and insurers to consider a customer’s interests and outcomes, and to treat customers fairly
- An appropriately resourced regulator to monitor the conduct of banks and insurance companies, with strong penalties for breaching duties
- Changes applied to both banking and insurance, since the issues identified in both are similar. There are also overlaps between the sectors, with banks often selling insurance products.
- A strong response to internal sales incentives and soft commissions
“We will consult with the public and industry on these changes, but we are going to move as quickly as possible on this because New Zealanders need to have confidence their rights and interests are being protected,” said Robertson.
Faafoi noted that the consultation will run alongside the insurance contract law review currently in progress.