Zurich Financial Services Group has rejected calls for an industry ban on contingent commissions.

The company's chief executive Geoff Riddell said there was no “black and white answer” to settling the investigation by the New York attorney general.

He said the probe would change the old insurer-broker-customer relationship. But the industry had yet to sort out the new business distribution model, he said.

Simply abandoning contingent commissions was not a solution, he claimed.

"One size does not fit all," Riddell said during a press conference at the Risk and Insurance Management Society's annual conference in Philadelphia.

Zurich has identified more than 100 potential business-model changes relating to the relationship between brokers, insurers and clients.

No matter what forms the compensation takes, transparency was crucial, he said. Disclosure of any payments should exceed the minimum levels required by regulation, Riddell said.