The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (Asic) has rolled out a ban on unsolicited telephone sales of life insurance and consumer credit insurance (CCI) products.
It will come into force from 13 January 2020.
The regulator said that prohibition on cold calling for these types of products came from the poor sales practices that led to “unfair customer outcomes”.
It added the measure is consistent with the recommendations made by the Royal Commission in its report on the financial services industry, earlier this year.
Protect clients
“Asic will intervene to stop practices that lead to poor consumer outcomes and destroy trust in the financial system,” said Sean Hughes, Asic commissioner.
“This action draws a clear line in the sand. From January firms will no longer be able to call consumers out of the blue and use sophisticated sales tactics to pressure people into buying life insurance and CCI products.”
The move follows a court victory for the Australian regulator against life insurer CommInsure, a wholly subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which was fined A$700,000 (£365,960, $479,270, €431,678) for cold-calling offences, locally known as ‘hawking’.
Asic rolled out a consultation on the ban in July 2019, and among the 15 responses it received none opposed the measure.
