Financial and insurance services

This industry covers businesses engaged in banking, investment advice and services, insurance, stockbrokers, wealth management, superannuation, central banking and the regulation of financial activities.

Top causes of injury

Much of the industry is office-based, so muscular and tendon injuries are common due to sitting for prolonged periods of time and repetitive activities such as typing. Slips, trips and falls are also common.

Common hazards

You need to know what the hazards are in your business so you can assess the risk they pose. Each workplace will have different safety challenges.

For instance, your business might conduct site visits, eg for insurance investigations. This presents hazards and risks for each individual site. You need to make sure your workers take suitable precautions as required. This might include protective clothing and equipment, taking driving precautions or ensuring there is no risk of harm from fallen power lines.

To help you get started, we’ve prepared information on how to identify hazards and manage the risks common to the financial and insurance services industry including:

  • sedentary work
  • lifting heavy objects
  • alcohol and other drugs
  • fatigue.

Resources to help you

As the work health and safety regulator in NSW, we have a wide range of technical, business, management and support services to help you make our business safe.

Our 'resource' and 'hazard' libraries

Our resource library and hazard library is where you will find up-to-date information on managing hazards and risks as well as codes of practice.

We also have extensive information that will help you improve and review your risk management processes. This includes videos, checklists, training and supervisory information, and safety alerts.

Our safety management resources

Our Safety starts here section has a range of essential resources including:

Our business resources

Our safety support services

If you employ fewer than 50 workers, you can book request a workplace advisory visit by one of our SafeWork inspectors who will help you identify hazards and develop risk management procedures.

You can call us on 13 10 50 at any time for assistance in finding the services you need quickly.

Keeping up to date

Get into the habit of checking our website twice a week for updates on your legislative obligations, on current incidents and prosecutions, for new safety tips and general health and safety information.

Link your business to our social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and never miss any of our news.

Subscribe to the SafeWork Wrap, our monthly newsletter, which contains safety tips, general information, industry updates, and news about our prosecutions and enforceable undertakings.

Subscribe to industry publications and join your industry group. For workers, the Finance Sector Union.

There are many organisations and associations that may be relevant to your business if you operate in this industry. They include the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance for professionals across the industry.

For financial services support:

For insurance services support:

Legislation

The NSW Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) and the NSW Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (WHS Regulation) define the obligations both employers and workers have to health and safety in the workplace.

The WHS legislation is supported by our Compliance policy and prosecution guidelines, which supplements the National compliance and enforcement policy.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has a complete breakdown of business operations that fall within the financial and insurance services industry.

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