The momentum towards the disclosure of commission payments between life assurance companies and intermediaries who sell life products is now "irreversible", the chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland has said.

Mr Peter Dargan, welcoming the decision by the Competition Authority not to licence the long-standing agreement on commission payments between life assurance companies and intermediaries, said the disclosure of life office charges is also now irreversible.

He recommended that consumers insist on the disclosure of all charges including commission at point of sale, when buying a life and pensions product, and repeated his association's call for the introduction of disclosure law.

"The decision of the Competition Authority underlines the failure in the stewardship of the industry to manage the conflict between competition and self-regulation," he said.

The effect of the agreement had been to keep the broker sector fragmented and largely incapable of gaining scale, reducing fixed costs and passing on the benefit to the consumer.

"The effect of this revolutionary change will see a shift in power downline from life and pension product manufacturers to the interface between intermediaries and consumers." Free-flowing competition with a proper disclosure law would result in better quality advice and service to consumers, he said. It would also begin the process of reducing the "significant level" of consumer distrust of the life industry which has been a feature of the past 10 years, Mr Dargan said.

The Insurance Industry Federation has expressed regret at the authority's decision and warned that commission payments would increase as life companies competed for business.