Singapore: Insurance panel releases best practice guidelines on culture and standards of conduct

24 Mar 2022

The Insurance Culture and Conduct Steering Committee (ICCSC) released on 22 March its first two papers with best practice guidelines and recommended initiatives for stakeholders within the insurance ecosystem.

Consumer interests and business resilience are the central themes in the first set of guidelines aimed at elevating the culture and standards of conduct of insurance companies, intermediaries (e.g. financial advisory firms), employees and the insurance ecosystem.

The two papers are:

• Human Resources Culture and Conduct Best Practices – Promoting Ethical Culture and Conduct Across the Employee Life Cycle: Outlining best practices in Hiring, Enterprise Training, Consequence Management, and Exit Management

• Corporate Governance Culture and Conduct Best Practices –Promoting Ethical Culture and Conduct Through Corporate Governance and Systems: Putting forth recommendations on the role of Leadership, Governance & Systems, Capability & Capacity, and Performance Management & Remuneration

Monetary Authority of Singapore assistant managing director (banking & insurance) Marcus Lim said, “The ICCSC has demonstrated its commitment to good culture and conduct within the insurance sector through the publication of these best practices and recommendations. By continually serving the best interests of their customers, insurers and intermediaries reinforce the foundation of trust upon which the industry is built.

"MAS encourages all firms to take reference from this set of papers and consider how best to apply them to their business so as to better serve their customers.”

ICCSC chairperson Khoo Kah Siang said, “The papers are developed based on extensive research carried out on best practices observed internationally, and inputs from senior practitioners within the industry. We hope that these papers will provide timely and practical guidance to the insurance companies in Singapore to apply and elevate their standards of culture and conduct over time, to maintain public trust and confidence in the insurers.

"ICCSC will continue to work with the various insurance associations in Singapore to adopt these guidelines as appropriate for their segment. These best practices papers will be reviewed in 12 months to assess the effectiveness of the recommendations for the industry,” said Dr Khoo.

The papers are available for download at:

https://www.lia.org.sg/industry-guidelines/industry-practices/