Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
9 Jun 2023 - ASIC has granted relief to life and general insurers to provide modifications and exemptions from the confirmation of transaction requirements contained in section 1017F of the Corporations Act in prescribed circumstances. The relief will expire on 1 July 2028.
Confirming transactions – deceased life insurance policyholder
This relief seeks to address situations where it may not be appropriate and/or necessary to confirm transactions with the holder of a life insurance policy where the life insurance policyholder is deceased and there is no alternative holder of the product.
Confirming transactions – recurring insurance benefit payments
For certain recurring benefit claims, this relief seeks to facilitate life and general insurers providing confirmation in the form of a statement given before, rather than after, the transactions are made. This includes benefit payments where the holder of the product is unable to work because of illness, injury or unemployment.
13 Jun 2023 - ASIC invites Australian entities to take part in the ASIC cyber pulse survey to measure cyber resilience https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2023-releases/23-160mr-asic-invites-australian-entities-to-assess-their-cyber-resilience/
13 Jun 2023 - NZ Police Financial Intelligence Unit released “The Suspicious Activity Report” for April 2023 https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/fiu-monthly-report-apr2023.pdf
13 Jun 2023 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has released its finalised risk weighting decisions and response to the points raised in submissions. They have also published an Exposure Draft of the associated Banking Prudential Requirements (BPR) document that covers the technical changes needed to implement the decisions. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2023/06/further-decisions-on-bank-risk-weights-released
14 Jun 2023 - Minister of Finance, Hon Grant Robertson, May 2023 diary released with the following potential financial services sector related meeting noted:
• 1 May 2023 – Ministerial meeting with RBNZ officials, Treasury officials
• 12 May 2023 – Speech at BNZ pre-Budget event
• 12 May 2023 – Speech at Centre for Sustainable Finance CEO roundtable
• 19 May 2023 - Speech at ANZ post-Budget event
• 22 May 2023 – Meeting with RBNZ
• 24 May 2023 - Call with RBNZ
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2023-06/Ministerial%20Diary%20May%202023.pdf