DIF III – Global Co-Investment Fund LP v Babcock & Brown International Pty Limited The recent NSW Supreme Court decision in DIF III – Global Co-Investment Fund LP v Babcock & Brown International Pty Limited ruled that section 54 the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) (ICA) did not cure a lack of notification of circumstances if those circumstances were not known during the policy period.  Here, this finding was based on the particular policy wording…

I        Can you breach an insurance policy before being aware of a claim? The short answer is yes.  In a split decision, the New South Wales Court of Appeal recently found a cause of action for breach of an indemnity policy accrues at the time of an insurable event, in this case property damage. In Globe Church Incorporated v Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd [2019] NSWCA 27, Bathurst CJ, Beazley P, and Ward…

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released Consultation Paper 311 seeking input from interested parties on 15 proposals that will change the way Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) holders conduct and report on internal dispute resolution (IDR)  processes. Submissions close on 9 August 2019, with the final revisions to Regulatory Guide 165: Internal Dispute Resolution to be published in December 2019. The measures are proposed to be progressively implemented between December 2019 and…

Continuing on from our blog series “Insurance After Hayne”, we will be posting short interviews with industry and legal experts on the Hayne recommendations and the proposed reforms to the industry.   In the second instalment of the series, we were joined by John Price, Lead Ombudsman for General Insurance Decisions at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), to discuss Commissioner Hayne’s recommendation to provide for legally enforceable provisions of industry codes. If industry codes are…

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Design and Distribution Obligations and Product Intervention Powers) Act 2019 passed Parliament last week and received royal assent shortly after. It introduces design and distribution obligations into the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), requiring financial services entities to consider the design of their retail financial products and the way they are distributed.  The amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) also give the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) power to intervene…

A Norton Rose Fulbright webinar with John Anning, Insurance Council of Australia Continuing on from our blog series “Insurance After Hayne”, we will be posting short interviews with industry and legal experts on the Hayne recommendations and the proposed reforms to the industry. In the first of these interviews, Ray Giblett (insurance partner, Sydney) sat down with John Anning, General Manager Policy, Regulation Directorate, Insurance Council of Australia and Matt Ellis (insurance partner, Melbourne) to…

Welcome to the 6th and final instalment of our weekly updates following the Hayne Royal Commission into the financial services industry. This week we focus on Recommendation 4.12, in which Hayne recommends that the Banking Executive Accountability Regime (BEAR) be extended to other financial service providers, including insurers. Now that the full contents of the report have been laid bare, we can investigate what extending the BEAR beyond its native banking habitat (that’s the last…