Consultation on GI & LI non-confidentiality determination and statistical publications

Background
 

APRA has historically released entity-level statistical publications in general insurance (GI) and life insurance including friendly societies (LI). The release of the entity-level insurance publications was enabled by data confidentiality determinations that deemed specific data points in GI and LI Reporting Standards non-confidential. Furthermore, the determinations allowed GI and LI industry aggregate statistics to be published without items being masked (i.e. redacted), ensuring the published data was complete and comprehensive.

APRA made significant changes to its capital and reporting framework for insurance with effect from 1 July 2023, which included the determination of a suite of new Reporting Standards. These changes reflected the implementation of Australian Accounting Standards Board 17 Insurance Contracts (AASB17) and revised capital framework for private health insurers (PHIs). Consequently, the existing confidentiality determinations no longer apply to the new Reporting Standards.

Publication content

APRA has been making targeted updates to its insurance publication suite to reflect the new reporting framework, which to date has focussed on the quarterly industry aggregate publications in GI, LI, PHI, and the Annual Private Health Insurance Statistics publication.

Likewise, APRA needs to revise the data presented in the remaining LI and GI publications to reflect the new reporting framework. It is important to note that APRA is not proposing to expand the granularity of the data included in these publications (including the entity-level insurance publications) beyond what has already been published. Consistent with existing practice, APRA will not publish or otherwise disclose class of business/product group data for individual insurers. Should there ever be any consideration of publishing such insurer-level data in the future, it would require formal consultation with the industry.

APRA is also taking the opportunity to enhance how it presents data to its stakeholders, moving to a dynamic data visualisation approach featuring data tables and charts. 

APRA is seeking feedback on the content and presentation of the following insurance publications, with specifications included at Attachment A that cover the:

• Quarterly general insurance institution-level statistics (released quarterly);
• Annual general insurance institution-level statistics (released semi-annually);
• Life insurance institution-level statistics (released semi-annually);
• Annual friendly society bulletin (released annually);
• General insurance claims development statistics (released annually); and
• Life insurance supplementary statistical tables (released annually).

The first release of the updated insurance publications will feature data beginning from December 2023.

Data files

To support the new data visualisation approach, APRA will also be releasing a ‘flat file’ data set that contains all data included in the enhanced insurance publications. This will allow stakeholders to download the data and utilise data manipulation and presentation methods of their choosing.

Confidentiality proposal

APRA intends to determine certain items within the new LI and GI Reporting Standards to be non-confidential. The purpose of this is to effectively renew the existing confidentiality determinations, while ensuring that the replacement determinations maintain the original scope and intent. Adopting a 'like-for-like' approach, only reporting forms (or part thereof) that were previously deemed non-confidential will have its equivalent in the new framework similarly classified as non-confidential. 

The determinations will enable APRA to continue to publish LI/GI entity-level publications under the new reporting framework, as well as publish LI/GI industry aggregate statistics completely, and without masking any items. By resuming the publication of such data, APRA aims to promote continued transparency in the GI and LI industries in line with APRA’s prudential objectives. This in turn supports competition, contestability and efficiency in the financial system and is aimed to facilitate innovative uses of data across multiple stakeholders.

Attachment B outlines the data proposed to be non-confidential and the relevant level of granularity. 

Consultation

APRA invites feedback on both the proposed content and presentation of the entity-level insurance publications and the data non-confidentiality proposals over a four-week public consultation. Written submissions on the proposals should be sent to dataconsultations@apra.gov.au by 5 September 2025 and addressed to:

Chief Data Officer
Data, Technology and Security Division
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

APRA will then finalise its response to the consultation, and subject to feedback, will provide a timeline for the release of the updated insurance publications. This will coincide with the formalisation of the data confidentiality determination.

Attachment A

Attachment B