Four domestic nonlife insurers announced business improvement plans Friday in the wake of an industrywide failure to pay legitimate claims that prompted closer scrutiny of structural problems in the sector, including a follow-the-leader mentality.
But the reforms announced separately by Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., Nipponkoa Insurance Co., and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. run along similar lines.
All four companies pledged to review the wording of product pamphlets and update computer systems.
And although the insurers announced almost identical punishments for the payout failures -- the presidents will each take a 30 percent pay cut for a month -- they denied discussing the matter in advance among themselves.
Critics have pointed out that the payout scandal stems from a rush by insurers to offer new products as soon as a rival did, and that their computer systems were unable to cope with the array of new products.
Asked whether a tendency to act uniformly played a role in the payout failures, Toru Komiya, senior managing director at Tokio Marine, admitted, "The fact that each firm followed the others in terms of product development may have been part of the problem."
The four are among 26 nonlife insurers ordered by the Financial Services Agency on Nov. 25 to submit business improvement plans by Jan. 13 in the wake of the payout scandal. The plans of the four are under review by the FSA.