Commonwealth Numbered Acts

INSURANCE LAWS AMENDMENT ACT 1991 No. 1 of 1992 - SECT 11

11. After section 48 of the Principal Act the following sections are inserted:
Actuarial investigation of outstanding claims provision

"48A. (1) This section applies to bodies corporate authorised under this Act
to carry on insurance business.

"(2) The Commissioner may, by notice in writing given to a body corporate,
require the body corporate to appoint an actuary to:

   (a)  carry out an investigation of the whole or a specified part of the
        body corporate's outstanding claims provision as at a particular time;
        and

   (b)  make a report on that investigation.

"(3) The actuary must not be an officer of the body corporate.

"(4) The body corporate must, within 7 days after the date on which the notice
was given, advise the Commissioner, in writing, of the name of the actuary.

"(5) If the Commissioner notifies the body corporate that the actuary is not
acceptable to the Commissioner, the body corporate must, within 7 days after
the date on which the notice was given:

   (a)  appoint a different actuary; and

   (b)  advise the Commissioner, in writing, of the name of the actuary so
        appointed.

"(6) The Commissioner may, within 7 days after the advice was given under
subsection (4) or (5), notify the body corporate, in writing, that the actuary
is not acceptable to the Commissioner.

"(7) The body corporate must cause the actuary's report to be given to the
Commissioner:

   (a)  within 30 days after the date on which the notice was given to the
        body corporate under subsection (2); or

   (b)  within such further time as the Commissioner, by written notice,
        allows.

"(8) The actuary's report:

   (a)  must be signed by the actuary; and

   (b)  must contain a statement of the actuary's opinion about each of the
        following:

   (i)  the adequacy of the amount of the whole or the part, as the case
        requires, of the outstanding claims provision;

   (ii) the accuracy of any relevant valuations made by the actuary;

   (iii) the assumptions used by the actuary in making those valuations;

   (iv) the relevance and appropriateness of the information on which those
        valuations were based;

   (v)  the accuracy of the information on which those valuations were based.

"(9) A body corporate that contravenes this section is guilty of an offence
punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding $10,000.

"(10) In this section: `officer', in relation to a body corporate, has the
same meaning as in the Corporations Act 1989. Commissioner may reconsider
delegate's decisions under subsection 48A (7)

"48B. (1) If:

   (a)  a delegate of the Commissioner makes a decision under paragraph 48A
        (7) (b) allowing, or refusing to allow, further time; and

   (b)  the body corporate concerned is dissatisfied with the decision; the
        body corporate may, by written notice given to the Commissioner within
        21 days after the day on which the decision first comes to the notice
        of the body corporate, request the Commissioner to reconsider the
        decision.

"(2) The reasons for making the request must be set out in the request.

"(3) Upon receipt of the request, the Commissioner must reconsider the
decision and may, subject to subsection (4), confirm or revoke the decision or
vary the decision in such manner as the Commissioner thinks fit.

"(4) If the Commissioner does not confirm, revoke or vary the decision before
the end of the period of 21 days after the day on which the Commissioner
received the request under subsection (1) to reconsider the decision, the
Commissioner is taken, at the end of that period, to have confirmed the
decision under subsection (3).

"(5) If the Commissioner confirms, revokes or varies a decision before the end
of the period referred to in subsection (4), the Commissioner must, by written
notice given to the applicant, inform the applicant of the result of the
reconsideration of the decision.".