RBNZ clearly has life insurance commission in its sights

It released its latest Financial Stability report this week, which looks at the banking and insurance sectors.

The report highlighted life insurers' tendency to rely on financial advisers, rather than shifting to online and direct distribution as many general insurance providers have done.

It compared commission in New Zealand to that paid by insurers in other countries and found New Zealand's insurers - paying commissions of about 20% of gross revenue - were at a level almost double their nearest counterpart, Mexico, at just under 13%.

The United States was at about 5% of revenue and Australia just over 10%.