Prudential Financial’s Japanese life insurance arm has reported that some employees assigned to contracted agencies removed and shared internal operational data with other company personnel.
The company disclosed that 11 staff members collected operational information on 379 occasions from seven different agencies.
This data, which included details such as agency sales performance, was then distributed among other Prudential employees and used to develop sales promotion plans.
In an Securities Exchange Commission filing, Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance said: “Both the seconded employees who removed the information and the employees who received it lacked a fundamental understanding of the rules and failed to perform basic compliance actions.”
This disclosure comes shortly after the resignation of the CEO of Prudential’s Japanese life insurance unit.
The departure followed the discovery of rule breaches by around 100 employees, which involved a total of approximately Y3.1bn ($19.5m).
“After confirming the content of all cases with the agencies, no issues were identified that would raise concerns under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, nor was there any inappropriate removal of contract information,” the statement added.
As part of its response, the company confirmed it will discontinue all life insurance secondments by the end of March.
Some past and current executives have also offered to give back part of their pay in light of the incidents.
The company said it takes the “seriousness of this incident with the utmost gravity”, while outlining that it is reinforcing data handling rules and legal compliance training company-wide.
“We will strengthen the Compliance Department’s involvement with the Sales Department to further enhance its oversight function,” it added.
“Prudential’s Japan unit finds unauthorised data sharing by staff” was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand.
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