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NRMA Insurance hit with near-$500K fine after thousands of drivers overcharged
The agency found that a misconfiguration with address data led to estimated overcharges of about $12.2 million across approximately 41,564 policies.
- The State Insurance Regulatory Authority imposed penalties totalling $479,500 on NRMA Insurance over breaches in its compulsory third-party insurance business.
- The agency found that a misconfiguration with address data led to estimated overcharges of about $12.2 million across approximately 41,564 policies.
- NRMA Insurance said the issues were identified during its transition from a legacy operating system to a new technology platform.
NSW’s insurance regulator has imposed $479,500 in civil penalties on NRMA Insurance after finding it overcharged motorists on compulsory third party (CTP) premiums by an estimated $12.2 million.
The State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) said in a statement released Tuesday that Insurance Australia Limited, trading as NRMA Insurance, breached the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017, the Motor Accident Guidelines and its insurer licence across eight separate matters.
The issues exposed “significant weaknesses in NRMA Insurance’s pricing, data and system controls, resulting in incorrect premiums, customer overcharges and under-refunds,” SIRA said.
“Accurate CTP premiums are fundamental to protecting motorists and maintaining confidence in the scheme.”
SIRA found an address-data misconfiguration applied incorrect rating districts to about 41,564 policies, resulting in estimated gross overcharges of about $12.2 million, according to its penalty letter, which described it as “the most serious of the eight matters.”
NRMA Insurance also did not apply a relationship discount to eligible new customers from April 2024 to November 2025, affecting about 16,033 policies with estimated overcharges of about $662,000.
About 727,000 policies require data review over inaccurate years-of-relationship information in renewal documents, though SIRA said, “these figures are review populations only”.
“We acknowledge SIRA’s findings and civil penalties in relation to the issues we identified and self-reported earlier this year,” an NRMA Insurance spokesperson told The Money Edition.
SIRA’s letter said the timely notification “received less mitigating weight because notification occurred under an existing regulatory obligation.”
“Once identified, our focus was addressing the issues, apologising to those customers impacted, and providing remediation payments, with interest, as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the issues were identified during the insurer’s transition to a new technology platform, which “will help to prevent similar issues happening in the future”.
NRMA Insurance submitted that its corrective action reduced the need for further enforcement and that, if action was necessary, a letter of censure would be more appropriate, but SIRA’s acting executive director Lauren Sayer wrote she was “satisfied that civil penalties are the appropriate and proportionate regulatory response.”
SIRA said NRMA Insurance cooperated throughout the investigation and is undertaking remediation, including refunds for identified overcharges.
In December 2024, SIRA fined the insurer $10,000 over the non-disclosure and incorrect application of demerit point loading on tens of thousands of CTP renewal policies.
SIRA found the incorrect loading negatively impacted 21,571 policies from October 2018, with a total premium impact of $1,296,073, including GST and interest.