MS Jean Wood, chief executive of Irish Life (Ireland), has criticised the industry for complacency and a failure to respond to the needs of its existing customers.

Speaking at a lunch of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants, Ms Wood said the life, industry had a "long standing and significant difficulty in convincing it's customers that it is deserving of heir trust and loyalty".

She added that, although the industry felt the dissatisfaction about some of its policies, not enough players were treating this with "sufficient urgency".

She pointed to the excessive complexity of policies, the lack of transparency about costs and charges, the doubts about the industry's commitment to honouring the spirit and not just the letter of its policies, and the poor communications which many companies have with their customers.

Although Ms Wood admitted that Irish Life was "not a glorious exception" to the rest of the industry, she said the company had made a start to responding to the needs of existing customers.

"But I can say we are ahead of the posse, if only because we know the size of the challenge," she said.

Irish Life was also in the throes of a fundamental review called Project 97. The review was expected to lead to a "life company for Ireland in the last years of the 20th century", according to Ms Wood.

She claimed it would produce new standards of service, new, simpler products and a new approach to customers. It should be the norm for the Ireland operation by 1997, she added.