The insurers know they are playing hard ball when people are most vulnerable and least equipped to cope with their commercial and legal antics......
and so do banks ...its all about delay tactics and running a hotline with the FOS to wear
you down and pay a pittance if not no compensation!
Former Liberal Party Treasurer Michael Yabsley joins call for Royal Commission into the banks
March 5, 2017
Colin Kruger
Former Liberal Party treasurer Michael Yabsley has joined the call for royal commission into the banks.
"Should there be a royal commission? Of course there should!
The royal commission should extend to the insurance arm of the banking industry, otherwise a significant part of consumer grievances arising from systemic failures will be ignored," Yabsley said in an email last week to Anna Bligh, the incoming head of the bank's lobby group, the Australian Bankers' Association (ABA).
He provided the email to CBD.
"The smart thing for the banks to do would be to get on board with a royal commission. Otherwise they will look
like the Catholic Church in the context of another royal commission, dragged screaming until finally, in the face of
undeniable truth, the facts are there for everyone to see."
More importantly, Yabsley claims there is more support for a Royal Commission in Coalition ranks than people think.
“There is strong support for a Royal Commission in the Coalition ranks for a Royal Commission into the banking, finance and insurance industries, than is not limited to the backbench,” he said.
“There is a level of understanding that this industry has left many victims in its wake over many decades. There is
also an understanding in Federal Government circles, that if these systemic failures are not addressed by a Royal
Commission, the Coalition will find itself on the wrong side of history, in much the same way as it in the apology to
the Stolen Generation.”
Yabsley has developed a reputation as a heretic amongst his former party colleagues over his call to tear up the blueprint on political funding, which has also been causing the party so much trouble.
Yabsley was upfront with the fact that he is not unaffected by the problems ailing our banking sector. Just weeks ago he was in mediation with NAB’s recently spun off arm MLC. CBD reported on the battle last year.
He commenced legal proceedings against MLC in the NSW Supreme Court last year over an insurance policy that did not work as planned.
“My insurance claim relates to a botched operation and anaesthetic when I was in Saudi Arabia on Australian Gulf Council business...Sadly I have not worked since 2012 as a result of the surgery” he said in his email.
There is no doubting the impact it has had on him.
“The insurers are very good at creating a process that is slow, expensive and stressful. Those of us who have been through the insurance wringer know too well, that that part of the insurer’s business model is to minimise payouts by wearing down the same people they are so keen to sign up.”
The insurers know they are playing hard ball when people are most vulnerable and least equipped to cope with their commercial and legal antics.”
Former Liberal Party treasurer Michael Yabsley sues big four bank NAB
Colin Kruger
22 September 2016
Things are not getting any easier for our big four banks.
Michael Yabsley – the former Liberal Party treasurer who is calling for a "radical" overhaul of Australia's political donations and election funding regime – is suing NAB's wealth arm, MLC, in the NSW Supreme Court over an insurance policy that apparently did not work as planned.
It comes as Australia's new Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, used his first appearance before Parliament to launch a strongly worded attack against the culture problems at the banks.
"I can't help but agree with you that there have been too many examples of poor outcomes, particularly in the wealth management and insurance industries," he said in response to a question by the committee.
Former Liberal Party Treasurer Michael Yabsley (centre) arrives at Sydney's Independent Commission Against Corruption. Photo: Daniel Munoz
NAB and Yabsley did not want to comment on the proceedings, but CBD can confirm Slater and Gordon are representing Yabsley – the enfant terrible who has been accused of heresy by his Liberal Party colleagues over his call to tear up the blueprint on political funding.
"By doing something quite major and quite radical you can have a very, very profound effect on the way political parties operate," he told Fairfax Media.
"It would force them to basically go back to what they were meant to be in the first place – that is, grass-roots organisations, mass-membership organisations."
But even the outspoken Yabsley has his limits. When contacted by CBD, Yabsley would not say whether he supports Labor's calls for a royal commission on the banks.
Not that he doesn't have a few friends on the other side of the political fence. He told CBD that Labor luminary Bob Hawke provided a helping hand following the incident that led to the insurance claim.