Life insurance supports customers and their families at some of the most difficult times in their lives. Commonwealth Bank and CommInsure take that responsibility very seriously. In 2016, CommInsure paid more than $1 billion in life and income protection payments to around 20,000 customers: $2.7 million every day.

Early last year, allegations were made in the media about CommInsure's conduct and processes. In response to those allegations, CommInsure's Board commissioned a number of independent reviews and undertook other work to investigate those claims. 

We’ve taken these concerns very seriously, commissioning thorough reviews and investigations led by experts including Deloitte, DLA Piper and EY. The reviews of CommInsure have been extensive, involving more than five million email messages and documents, 80 interviews and the manual review of more than 200,000 individual emails. 

In light of those reviews and other work we've undertaken, the CommInsure Board concluded that there was no evidence to support concerns about wilful or widespread misconduct at CommInsure. 

Specifically, Deloitte confirmed in their report that they "…did not identify any systemic issues relating to historically declined claims". Addressing one of the most serious allegations made against CommInsure, with regard to all the reviews, the CommInsure Board was satisfied there was nothing to suggest a culture of doctors being pressured or bullied by claims staff to change their medical opinions. 

The CommInsure Board also concluded that there was no evidence to support the claim that employees "cherry-picked" doctors to provide medical opinions for the purpose of declining claims. CommInsure doctors’ medical opinions reflected their own genuine views and were not changed to support the declining of claims.