Financial exclusion and Australian domestic general insurance : the impact of financial services reform
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2012
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Consumer access to financial products and services may depend on a variety of factors.
Recent evidence reveals that “Financial Exclusionary” effects may exert a particularly
adverse impact on people's ability to access financial services and products. Specifically, this
Study examines the extent to which recent financial services reforms in Australia have
impacted upon those financial exclusionary effects which may preclude access to general
insurance products in the domestic market.
Towards this aim, I first generated a profile of financial exclusionary effects applying to
current Australian domestic general insurance products utilised by domestic insureds. The
profile revealed that these effects occur widely across statute-prescribed insurance policies
in the Australian domestic general insurance market. I then examined extent to which
internal and external contextual factors arising from interaction with various statutory
provisions constrained these effects. I discovered that potential constraints, primarily due to
the preclusion of external statutory provisions from general insurance contracts, were
minimal. This in turn, could be traced to the existence of insurance specific statutory
remedies under the Australian federal insurance legislation designed to provide relief from
harsh, oppressive, unconscionable, unjust, unfair, or inequitable insurer conduct.
Subsequently, I identified the general objectives of recent Australian financial services
reform legislation from the perspective of potential impact upon financial exclusionary
effects. I found that, through an attempt to address structural defects in the application of the
reform legislation, the new legislation in fact replicated existing statutory descriptions of
several domestic general insurance products which contained financial exclusionary effects,
embedding these effects in the definitions central to the reform legislation. I consider the
policy implications of my research findings, noting that remedial legislation may be
necessary to address those issues identified.
I conclude my thesis with the outcome of a Pilot Study I developed and implemented in
order to establish the extent to which my multi-part analytical framework was relevant in
determining the financial exclusionary effect profile in domestic general insurance products
available in the New Zealand general insurance market. I report on the outcome of these
inquiries, which successfully established the probable financial exclusionary effect profile in
financial products and services within that jurisdiction.
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