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Cut out cold calling warns FSC
The Financial Services Council (FSC) has supported recommendations that prevent insurers from pressuring consumers to buy products over the phone.
FSC chief executive, Sally Loane, said the practice was ‘not acceptable’ and that insurers should be unable to make cold outbound calls for the purposes of selling life or consumer credit insurance.
The recommendation comes from the Financial Services Royal Commission’s recommendation 4.1 that hawking of insurance products should be prohibited. The FSC supported another claim in the recommendation 4.1 earlier this week over Unfair Contract Terms.
Loane said: “There is no place for cold calling and pressuring random people into buying a life insurance product they don’t need, want or understand.
“For an outbound call to be justified, a person must first have given their positive, clear and informed consent, before being contacted.
“Additionally, given there is no legislated time frame in which calls need to be made, the FSC believes an initial call should be made within three months of consent.”
She acknowledged the insurance industry had already made progress through better use of monitoring, remuneration practices, appropriate incentives and the FSC Life Insurance Code of Practice.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Laura Dew is editor at Super Review. Prior to joining SR, she spent five years working at Investment Week in the UK covering asset and wealth management.
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