A new initiative from the Sandhurst Diocese is changing the way Catholic entities across Australia manage their risk and insurance needs.
Catholic Risk and Insurance Services Ltd (CRIS) is a newly established not-for-profit entity that collaborates with Catholic communities across Australia to improve insurance procurement and risk management.
By leveraging the combined assets of Catholic entities, CRIS helps these organisations secure better insurance outcomes, enabling them to spend less on insurance and more on mission.
For more than 100 years, Catholic Church Insurance Ltd (CCI) had been the primary provider of insurance to Catholic entities in Australia. However, with the decision by CCI to enter “run-off” in May 2023 – due to its inability to raise sufficient capital to meet regulatory requirements – there was a clear gap in the market that needed to be addressed.
This prompted the creation of CRIS, which operates not as an insurer but as a group purchasing body, leveraging the scale of the Church to secure better pricing and terms of cover for its members.
CRIS is a registered not-for-profit charity and is governed by a skills-based board.
The company is owned by the Church, with members including Sandhurst Bishop Shane Mackinlay and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference President Archbishop Timothy Costelloe.
It is envisaged that, in time, other key Church leaders will become company members.
This structure allows CRIS to represent a broad coalition of Catholic entities and collaborate effectively across dioceses, religious orders and other catholic organisations to achieve better outcomes for insurance procurement.
As part of its mission, CRIS aims to reaggregate the Church’s insurance needs.
By bringing together dioceses, Catholic schools, religious orders, and other Catholic entities, CRIS is able to drive efficiencies and savings in insurance procurement.
This collaborative model has already proven successful. For example, the Victorian dioceses of Sandhurst, Ballarat and Sale have benefited from CRIS’s tender process for the 2024 renewal year, resulting in premium savings, reduced deductibles, and improved policy terms.
Since then, Catholic Education Western Australia, which oversees education in all four dioceses of Western Australia, has joined the CRIS tender process and the benefits were again shared with the participation of the Perth Archdiocese and the dioceses of Bunbury, Geraldton and Broome.
“The CRIS model has demonstrated the power of collaboration,” said Cameron Fraser, director and inaugural chief executive of CRIS.
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CRIS: A New Era for Insurance Procurement in the Australian Church (Sandhurst Diocese)
