Certificate of currency

What it means

A certificate of currency is a short document from an insurer or broker confirming that a policy is in force. It names the insured entity, the type of cover, the policy number, the period of insurance and the limit of indemnity.

It is evidence about a policy, not the policy itself. The wording, the exclusions and the conditions all sit in the policy document and the schedule. A certificate summarises; it does not grant cover, extend cover, or override anything the wording says.

Certificates are issued on request and are usually free. A business that holds cover can normally obtain one the same day from whoever arranged the policy.

Also called: certificate of currency, CoC, currency certificate, insurance currency certificate

Where you meet it

• Licence applications and renewals, where a regulator requires evidence of a class of cover as a condition of holding the licence.
• Site access and contractor onboarding, where a principal or head contractor collects certificates before letting anyone start.
• Commercial leases, where a landlord requires evidence that the tenant holds liability cover for the premises.
• Tender submissions, where evidence of cover is part of the compliance schedule.

Worked example

A head contractor asks a subcontractor for evidence of public liability cover before a site induction. The subcontractor emails a certificate of currency from its broker. The certificate shows the insured name, the policy period and the limit.

The head contractor now knows a policy exists and what it covers on its face. What the certificate cannot show is whether the work being done falls inside the policy’s business description, whether the limit has already been eroded by earlier claims, or whether the premium is actually paid up. Those are separate questions, and each one has to be asked separately.

What goes wrong with it

• A certificate is a snapshot. It is accurate on the day it is issued and says nothing about what happens the day after — a policy can be cancelled inside its stated period.
• The insured name on the certificate has to be the entity doing the work. A certificate in a director’s personal name, or in the name of a related company, does not evidence cover for the trading entity on the contract.
• The business description matters more than the limit. Cover responds to the activities described in the policy, so a certificate naming activities that do not include the work actually being performed is a real gap.

Covers this clause appears in

• Public liability insurance — Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.
• Workers compensation insurance — Statutory cover for injury to workers, arranged through each state or territory scheme rather than on the open market.

Related clauses

• certificate of insurance
• interested party
• occurrence limit

Guides that use this

• how to request a certificate of currency
• checking a subcontractors certificate

Sources

On any specific policy, the wording and the schedule govern — they are the primary source for what a clause means there. The references below are general guidance to check against, cited at the publisher level.

• Moneysmart (ASIC) — General guidance from the regulator’s consumer site on insurance and the documents that come with a policy.
• ASIC — Regulator guidance for the licensed intermediaries that issue these documents.