What is the GICOP 2026 consultation?
The General Insurance Code of Practice is the industry code that sets the standards general insurers must meet when dealing with customers, covering claims handling, complaints, disclosure and support for customers experiencing vulnerability. The Insurance Council of Australia opened public consultation on a fully redrafted Code on 24 June 2026. Submissions close on 21 July 2026, after which the Code will be lodged with ASIC for approval.
This is the most consequential rewrite since the Code was introduced in 1994. It follows the 2022 Flood Inquiry and the Independent Code Review, both of which found gaps in claims handling, customer communication and vulnerability support. For background on how the reform process reached this point, see our earlier GICOP 2026 overview.
Once ASIC approval is granted, the consultation window is over. What is in the final Code is what insurers, MGAs and their distribution partners will operationalise for the rest of the decade.
What is changing in the draft GICOP 2026?
1. Key Code commitments become legally enforceable
For the first time, core GICOP obligations will be incorporated into insurance contracts. Claims handling timeframes, transparency obligations and complaint resolution windows become contractual promises, enforceable through AFCA or the courts — not just monitored by the Code Governance Committee.
Curium helps insurers and MGAs turn changing regulatory obligations into live, evidenced workflows, with centralised controls, clear audit trails and real-time compliance reporting. Explore the Curium Compliance Platform.
The practical consequence lands on Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) and policy wordings. Every document on issue must be consistent with the enforceable commitments. A PDS that contradicts a Code commitment is no longer a disclosure defect — it is a contractual defect. Insurers and MGAs with multiple products across multiple capacity arrangements face a full wording review and reissuance program inside the transition window.
2. The retail/wholesale delineation is being redrawn
The draft GICOP 2026 moves to a tiered coverage structure: retail customers receive the full protections of the Code, wholesale customers receive a narrower set, and some business sits outside the Code entirely. The delineation rules that determine who lands in which tier are changing at the same time as the obligations become enforceable.
This creates a business-by-business enforcement problem. Every insurer and MGA with a mixed book must classify every customer and every product against the new boundaries. Under an enforceable Code, misclassification does not mean applying the wrong guidance — it means breaching, or wrongly denying, contractual entitlements. For portfolios near the boundary, such as SME packages, farm, strata and commercial lines sold to retail-like customers, the classification logic itself becomes a compliance control that must be built, tested and evidenced.
3. The 12-month deemed acceptance rule for claims
Under the draft Code, claims left undecided after 12 months are automatically accepted. This single provision makes claim aging visibility a board-level control. Insurers whose claim aging oversight relies on manual spreadsheets will need real-time monitoring, escalation triggers and clear rules on how the 12-month clock interacts with customer-caused delays, expert report delays and catastrophe surge events.
4. A dynamic, circumstances-based definition of vulnerability
The draft adopts a circumstances-based definition of vulnerability that recognises a customer’s status can change over time, paired with a new “Extra Care” standard and expectations of trauma-informed claims handling. Operationally, vulnerability stops being an intake checkbox and becomes a status that must be detected, reassessed, acted on and evidenced throughout the customer lifecycle.
The draft also references the Expert Report Best Practice Standard, the Extreme Weather and Disaster Response Charter, and standardised definitions of wear-and-tear and maintenance obligations.
As GICOP obligations become enforceable, organisations will need clear evidence that claims, complaints, vulnerability and regulatory deadlines are being managed consistently. See how Curium can help your organisation prepare for the new Code — book a personalised demo.
How to make a GICOP submission: what MGAs and smaller insurers should say
The ICA has asked stakeholders to comment on consumer impact, enforceability and operational workability. Workability is where smaller Code subscribers have the most credible voice — and the perspective most likely to be missing if only major insurers respond. A useful submission can be short. Focus on:
The retail/wholesale delineation. Test the new tier boundaries against your actual book and report the results. Identify customer segments where classification is genuinely ambiguous, and ask what happens contractually when two reasonable readers classify the same policyholder differently. Request bright-line tests and worked examples in the final Code. Vague delineation combined with contractual enforceability means AFCA arbitrating classification disputes one policy at a time.
The PDS burden. Quantify it: how many wordings are on issue, how many capacity partners must approve changes, and how long a full review-and-reissue cycle realistically takes. The transition period must accommodate the slowest document in your stack, not the average one.
The transition period. The ICA anticipates a 24-month transition to contractual enforceability. State clearly whether that is achievable for your organisation across policy wording updates, system changes, staff training and process redesign — especially where timelines depend on vendors or reissuance cycles you do not control.
The deemed acceptance mechanics. Ask how the 12-month clock pauses or tolls for customer-caused delay, third-party expert delay, and declared catastrophe events. Ambiguity guarantees disputes.
The vulnerability evidence standard. Support the intent, then ask what documentation the Code Governance Committee will expect as proof that Extra Care was provided. Principles-based obligations without clear evidence expectations create audit uncertainty that smaller teams carry hardest.
Note: the ICA asks stakeholders to disclose whether AI was used to generate their submission. Whatever drafting tools you use, the operational detail must be genuinely yours — it is the contribution nobody else can make.
Why the GICOP 2026 draft matters even if you don’t lodge a submission
The consultation paper and draft Code are the clearest available preview of 2027–2028 compliance obligations for general insurers and MGAs in Australia. Reading them now is the cheapest gap analysis available.
The enforceability shift means the gap between “what our policy says we do” and “what our systems can prove we did” becomes a legal gap, not a governance one. Organisations that treat the anticipated 24-month transition as a runway — mapping obligations to controls, instrumenting claim aging, building vulnerability detection and classification logic into workflows — will enter the new Code ready. Evidence cannot be retrofitted.
Curium will be lodging a submission focused on operational workability for MGAs and smaller Code subscribers. If you are preparing your own submission and want to compare notes on the operational implications, contact us before 21 July.
Frequently asked questions
When does the GICOP 2026 consultation close? Public consultation on the draft General Insurance Code of Practice closes on 21 July 2026. It opened on 24 June 2026.
When will the new GICOP take effect? After consultation, the ICA will lodge the redrafted Code with ASIC for approval. The ICA anticipates a 24-month transition period before contractual enforceability applies, so insurers should plan for obligations to bite in the 2027–2028 window.
What is the 12-month deemed acceptance rule? Under the draft GICOP 2026, a claim left undecided after 12 months is automatically accepted. The interaction of the 12-month clock with customer delays, expert report delays and catastrophe events is a key issue to raise in consultation submissions.
Will the new GICOP be legally enforceable? Yes. Key commitments in the draft Code will be incorporated into insurance contracts, making them enforceable through AFCA or the courts — a significant change from the current Code, which is monitored by the Code Governance Committee.
How is the retail/wholesale distinction changing? The draft moves to a tiered structure in which retail customers receive full Code protections, wholesale customers receive a narrower set, and some business falls outside the Code. Insurers and MGAs must classify every customer and product against the new boundaries, and misclassification under an enforceable Code carries contractual consequences.
Who can make a GICOP submission? Anyone. The ICA has invited feedback from insurers, Code subscribers, consumer advocates and other stakeholders via the Insurance Council of Australia website until 21 July 2026.
Key takeaways
- The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) is consulting publicly on the redrafted General Insurance Code of Practice (GICOP) from 24 June to 21 July 2026.
- Under the draft GICOP 2026, key Code commitments become legally enforceable by being incorporated into insurance contracts, arguable at AFCA and in court.
- Claims left undecided after 12 months are automatically accepted under the draft’s deemed acceptance rule.
- The retail/wholesale delineation is being redrawn into a tiered structure, meaning every customer and product must be reclassified — and misclassification becomes a contractual breach.
- Enforceability puts direct pressure on PDS documents and policy wordings, which must be reviewed and reissued to match Code commitments within the anticipated 24-month transition period.
- MGAs and smaller insurers should lodge submissions on operational workability — the perspective most likely to be missing from the consultation.
Author:
Tetiana George, CEO of Curium, Co-Chair of Insurtech Australia and member of ASIC Digital Finance Advisory Committee. LinkedIn Profile.
Source: General Insurance Code of Practice