A joint Insurance News and Guidewire webinar considered the “dual demands” imposed by the insurance code and the corporate regulator when it comes to complaint handling.

The session – Decoding Compliance: The Future of Insurance Customer Care – focused on General Insurance Code of Practice obligations and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Regulatory Guide 271 on internal dispute resolution. 

Guidewire sponsored the November 25 webinar, which was hosted by Insurance News.

The expert panel was made up of Guidewire’s senior director of product management James Couzens, Hollard Insurance COO Paige Vincent, and Guidewire VP of customer success and professional services for Asia-Pacific Carol-Ann Gough. Insurance News editor-in-chief John Deex moderated the session.

Mr Couzens gave listeners an overview of the code and RG 271 before Ms Vincent explained the scale of the challenge from an insurer’s perspective, noting that it’s vital to remember what compliance is for.

“When you bring it back to, ‘What is it trying to achieve?’ it’s about the minimum standards that the insurance industry should be delivering to customers, particularly at claims time.

“At the end of the day, all of that regulation – the code, RG 271 – is all about getting better customer outcomes.”

Ms Gough pointed out that processes used to meet obligations can also provide crucial risk signals, while Mr Couzens addressed qualitative obligations such as utmost good faith.

“Acting in utmost good faith means that if you have a piece of information that the other party doesn’t know, and it’s important for the transaction of the business, then you need to make them aware of that.”

The panel discussed the broad definition of complaints, which includes comments on social media, and the difficulty of staying on top of ever-changing requirements.

“This is one aspect that we have to get really good at managing as organisations and industries – having the capability and the flexibility to do that well, quickly and at the right cost,” Ms Gough said.

“I think it’s also about encouraging organisations to think about modernisation generally, because to be able to keep up, does mean we have to modernise in certain areas.”

If you missed this informative discussion, the 45-minute webinar is available below.