The Financial Services Council (FSC) will introduce a moratorium on life insurance genetic test results as a binding standard from July 1, following stakeholder feedback in the Life Insurance Code of Practice consultation.

Under the moratorium principles, consumers can obtain up to $500,000 of cover without having to reveal adverse genetic test results.

They will not be required to take genetic tests when applying for cover, and insurers can only use relevant test outcomes when the policy involves more than $500,000 for life or total and permanent disability, $200,000 for trauma cover or $4000 a month for income protection.

Consumers are not required to disclose genetic tests taken as part of other research if they are not given the results.

The moratorium will be in place until at least June 30 2024, although a review is expected in 2022.

“We had originally planned to introduce a range of new consumer protections to the revised code by July 1,” FSC Senior Policy Manager Nick Kirwan said.

“The industry doesn’t want consumers to have to wait for new protections like the moratorium, so we are introducing it from July as a standard and looking at a range of other proposed code changes to see what can be implemented via standard while the code is rewritten.”

Submissions calling for the code to be written in “plain English” and be approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will be further reviewed.

“These are not overnight jobs and to give each suggestion the consideration it deserves, more work is required as part of the current code review,” Mr Kirwan said.