The breaches took place between January 2008 and April 2012, during which time more than 58,000 claims were processed by staff who were not supervised by appropriately accredited individuals and who failed to pass on requests for information to accredited staff members.
The Central Bank reprimanded the insurer for breaches of the Minimum Competency Requirements 2006 (MCR), the Minimum Competency Code 2011 (MCC), and the Consumer Protection Code 2012.
Breaches
Axa was accused to failing to:
- ensure that individuals operating a prescribed script function between January 2008 and April 2012 referred requests for information and advice to an appropriately accredited individual;
- ensure that individuals operating a prescribed script function between January 2008 and April 2012 were supervised by an appropriately accredited individual;
- maintain a register of accredited persons in the format prescribed by the MCC; and
- comply with the complaints resolution provisions of the 2012 Code over a six-month period from January to June 2014.
A settlement agreement was reached on 26 July, under which Axa accepted the breaches.
Minimum professional standards
The Central Bank’s director of enforcement, Derville Rowland, said: “This is the first enforcement action to be taken against a firm for breaches of the MCC since it replaced the MCR. The protection of consumers of financial services remains a high level goal for the Central Bank and compliance with consumer focused legal and regulatory requirements is a key priority.”
Rowland said: “In accordance with the standards, regulated entities must ensure that staff who provide advice to consumers on retail financial products hold a recognised qualification or have gained an appropriate level of experience through working in the industry.
“Non-adherence to the minimum competency standards can affect the quality of service provided to consumers and creates an unacceptable level of risk to consumers in their dealings with regulated entities by, amongst other things, exposing them to unqualified and/or inexperienced staff.”
