IBCCC Annual Report says culture is key to compliance

The Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee (IBCCC) has published their 2020-21 Annual Report, detailing the activities of the IBCCC during the financial year and providing a brief overview of code breach and complaints data provided by Code subscribers.

The 2020-21 report is the first to include data from the 163 Steadfast members that became members in December 2019. Due to the large influx of new subscribers, performance in a number of areas was impacted as new members familiarise themselves with the requirements of the monitoring and reporting process. As such it is difficult to meaningfully compare this year’s data with that of previous years.

A number of anomalies were identified due to a lack of familiarisation with the reporting process. The IBCCC is confident however that this will improve ” As new subscribers adapt to their new self-reporting obligations over the coming year, the Committee is confident our compliance monitoring will become increasingly accurate and insightful.”

As expected with the significant increase in subscribers, the number of code breaches also rose, while the percentage of subscribers who self-reported breaches decreased.  This is largely attributed to the influx of new subscribers reporting for the first time.

Breaches relating to money handling and timeframes around renewal notices also increased as businesses struggled to adapt to working from home.  Pleasingly, this did not appear to impact broker’s abilities to meet their legal obligations, with the number of breaches relating to this standard remaining steady.

The report highlighted the important role of culture in supporting compliance, mirroring the IBCCC’s program of activities for the year and their submissions to the Insurance Broker Code review, which heavily influenced the approach to the review.

A copy of the report can be accessed here, the IBCCC will provide a more in-depth analysis of complaints and breach data later in the year.

This report is the last to be published under the stewardship of IBCCC Independent Chair Michael Gill, and consumer representative Julia Davis. NIBA would like to sincerely thank both Michael and Julia for their contributions to the Committee and all the work they have done to further promote professionalism and strong outcomes for broker clients.