Our response to COVID-19

Dear customers,

We are collectively facing a serious global and national health and economic challenge with the COVID-19 situation. As a customer of AIA Australia, we want to ensure you remain informed about how we are managing the COVID-19 issue and the ongoing developments.

As a global insurer, we are closely monitoring the situation around the world, and we are receiving frequent updates from our Group Office in Hong Kong. We are reviewing Australian Government and global and national health authorities, to ensure we are addressing the latest health and travel developments.

We believe it is important to remain calm but vigilant, and do what we can as a business and as a society to help limit and slow the spread of the virus.

Our current actions

We have detailed incident management, pandemic and business continuity plans in place in Australia, and an internal taskforce is meeting daily to discuss the evolving situation.

From our customers’ perspective, we know that the most important concern is that we continue to assess and pay claims and assess applications for cover. We are preparing for all scenarios, including where the majority of our staff might need to work from home, and we’re testing our IT capabilities to ensure that when you need us, it will be business as usual as best we all can in the context of a changing and evolving situation. During this time you may experience some remote telephone issues such as call volume, so we ask for your patience while we activate our continuity plans.

We know that the current circumstances may be particularly difficult for those on claim, and we are looking at how we can support people at this time. Where someone is having difficulty obtaining the usual information we require to progress their claim, we will work with them to help gather what we need, and consider any alternative arrangements if it is not practical to obtain medical information in a timely fashion.

Your insurance coverage

We want to assure you that COVID-19 has no impact on your existing insurance cover with us. If you need to make a claim related to COVID-19, as with any other claim, you will simply need to meet the eligibility requirements for your type of cover.

If you have a financial adviser, they will be able to assist you with any queries you have about your protection.

Everyone’s safety is our number one concern, including the health of the nation

The health and wellbeing of our customers, our staff and our partners is paramount. We urge everyone to follow the travel advice of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the health advice of the World Health Organisation. At this time, we hope that everyone respects the advice of the Federal Government and reconsiders any proposed international travel.

In order to protect the health of our staff and those they come in contact with, we are limiting domestic travel and face-to-face meetings to only those that are business critical. We have stopped international business travel to and from Australia, as well as attendance at conferences and large gatherings.

As you can see, we are taking active steps and sensible precautions to keep everyone safe while also keeping our business running, so that we can continue the important work we do to Make a Difference and support our customers, partners and each other.

Take care,

Damien Mu

CEO and Managing Director, AIA Australia and New Zealand