In Ireland there is no statute law, regulating ‘investment business’ as it relates to ‘insurance business’, that even remotely approaches the power of the U.K. Financial Services Act 1986 (not to mention its successor, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000).

As already indicated in Section 2.4.4, the Regulatory Regime in Ireland was such that, up to 1st November 2001, regulation on the conduct of investment intermediaries dealing in Life Assurance investment products was wholly Self Regulation by the Insurance Industry itself. (In 2001, the provisions of the Insurance Act 2000 finally came into effect and, as a result, Life Assurance and similar type investment business came under control of the Central Bank. This will be discussed further in Section 2.6.3.)


The only statutory legislation in Ireland (prior to the provisions of the Insurance Act 2000 coming into effect) that purports to provide, and was expressly represented to clients / consumers as providing, protections for clients / consumers in matters of Life Assurance / Endowment Assurance type investments is the Irish Insurance Act 1989.


Within the definitions of the Irish Insurance Act 1989, Life Assurance investment business constitutes ‘insurance business’ and therefore comes under the ambit of the Act.

In the matter of Codes of Conduct, Section 56 of the Irish Insurance Act 1989 provides that:

Section 61 provides that:

But the Act does not set out any Principles, regarding Standards and Disclosure, to be applied to such ‘codes of conduct’, as was the case with the U.K. Financial Services Act 1986.

In 1990 a Code of Conduct for Insurance Intermediaries was introduced under title of the Insurance Act 1989. This Code of Conduct  was displayed in a prominent position (usually in the immediate vicinity of the customer queue line) in the customer area of every Financial Services Institution.


The Code of Conduct for Insurance Intermediaries is one page A4 size document. It (i.e. its requirements as relevant to the subject matter of this website-book) presented itself to consumers as set out below.

The letter of the Code of Conduct for Insurance Intermediaries prominently proclaims the following to all persons entering the place of business of the Insurance Intermediary:

Clearly, the contents of the Code of Conduct are intended to give, and do give, considerable reassurance to the client / consumer entering into a contract with or through the Insurance Intermediary.


It must therefore come as some shock to an aggrieved customer to be informed by the Irish Insurance Federation (the Self Regulatory Body) that the Code of Conduct for Insurance Intermediaries has no legal status whatsoever under Statute; it has no status under the provisions of the Insurance Act 1989 because it has not been prescribed by an order of the Minister; it is a voluntary Code of Conduct put forward by the Irish Insurance Federation on behalf of the Insurance Industry and approved by the Minister’s Department.

As a consequence, the Code of Conduct, most particularly in the matter of disclosing any potential conflicts of interest (for example, disclosing commission that would follow from a client's choice of one product as distinct from another), was treated by those within the Financial Services Industry as if it did not exist.

Note! Of course, the Common Law fiduciary duty to disclose was treated with absolute disdain by those within the Financial Services Sector. See Section 2.3.4 (a), and note particularly in Conlon v Simms that, where a duty to disclose exists, and the failure to disclose is deliberate, the non-disclosure amounts to fraudulent misrepresentation. (See also Section 2.3.2: Fraudulent Misrepresentation, and 'Silence as Statutory Misrepresentation ?' in Section 2.3.5.)

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But the Financial Institutions / Life Assurance Companies cannot have it both ways. They have induced clients / consumers to enter into contracts with them as a result of the reassurances given. While the Insurance Industry would have the client / consumer understand otherwise, the Code of Conduct for Insurance Intermediaries, as it is represented, must therefore be seen as having considerable status in Law.



The Code of Conduct, as prominently displayed by Financial Services Institutions in the public area of their business premises, expressly states that the Code exists under the aegis of the Insurance Act 1989.

This statement, of itself, is a false and misleading statement; it gives express assurance that the client / consumer has statutory protection with respect to the proclaimed tenets of the Code where no such protection exists.



Also, the contents of the Code of Conduct, as displayed in the public area of all his business premises, constitute representations made by each Insurance Intermediary.

These representations seriously affect the inclination of the client / consumer to enter into a contract with or through the Insurance Intermediary. If they cannot be relied upon then the consumer has been seriously misled. 


Misrepresentation will have been perpetrated on all three counts, Fraudulent, Negligent and Statutory.


The aggrieved client / consumer will be entitled to repudiate the contract. In addition he will be entitled to claim damages for any loss suffered.