Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill published

The draft Conduct of Financial Institutions (COFI) Bill has been published by the National Treasury for comment.

Comments will be accepted until 1 April 2019.

The suite of documents includes the Bill itself (188 pages), the COFI Bill Policy Paper (90 pages), and the Socio-Economic Assessment setting out the identified problems, the main causes of the problems and why the problems arise, according to Treasury.

This Bill has been long-awaited and it fills the gap in the insurance legislation which currently consists of the Financial Sector Regulation Act 2017 and the Insurance Act 2017 (and their subordinate legislation).

Unfortunately the burden on the insurance industry will not stop at the 188 page legislation (although this is in a big font with wide spacing). Once this enabling Act is brought into force, expect a flood of Conduct Standards which will initially convert the current Long-term Insurance Act and Short-term Insurance Act and its Regulations and Policyholder Protection Rules into Standards.