IAG's pioneering Research Centre

IAG is the only insurer in Australasia to invest in its own Research Centre, which allows us to conduct and share research on a range of vehicles with a focus on safety, security and repair costs.

We also review our claims data to inform road safety initiatives. Our Research Centre is proud to be the ANCAP test centre for head restraints, with IAG’s head restraint ratings now adopted into ANCAP safety ratings to reduce whiplash injuries.

The Research Centre pioneered IAG’s shared value approach with its extensive work to improve car security. During the late 1980s, car theft sky-rocketed in Australia, with Sydney considered the car theft capital of the world. Not only was the rate of theft socially disruptive with a car reported stolen every six minutes, but it was driving up insurance premiums on many popular cars to unaffordable levels. Our Research Centre created Australia’s first car security rating system, which scored a vehicle’s theft resistance, and shared this information with manufacturers and consumers. This advocacy work led to our founding involvement in several initiatives such as: the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council; the national sharing of theft data; the creation of a national written-off vehicle register and; the mandating of immobilisers.  Today, car theft figures are less than half of what they were 20 years ago.

Road safety has also been a critical focus for the Research Centre. Between 2002 and 2007, the Research Centre delivered the 101 Accident Blackspots program in NSW, identifying the worst intersections for collisions. Public awareness led to the installation of traffic lights at the number one blackspot in 2002 – the then-notorious five-ways roundabout at Miranda – with an estimated 80% drop in collisions. Our research also drove safety improvements to an entrance ramp on the M4 at Silverwater, reducing the number of collisions at this blackspot by around 300 per year and saving an estimated $600,000 per year in claim costs since 2005.