Insurers, including bank-owned life insurers, paid more than A$6 billion in commissions to financial advisers in connection with the sale of life cover issued by these insurers over five years, the financial services royal commission heard yesterday.Opening the sixth round of hearing, Rowena Orr, counsel assisting, summarised another catalogue of industry mischief, a process likely to delve into the extent to which banks and their insurers are resolving conflicts of interest."We asked the ten life insurers to provide us with information about the monetary and non-monetary benefits that they as product issuers provide to financial advisers," Orr explained to the commissioner, Kenneth Hayne."You will recall that one of the topics addressed in the second round of hearings was the way in which particular remuneration structures for financial advisers could lead to poor financial advice. Another topic addressed in that round of hearings was the ban on conflicted remuneration that was introduced in July 2013 as part of the Future of Financial Advice reforms, and the various exceptions to that ban. "Until 1 January this year, commissions paid in respect of life risk insurance products other than group life policies and life policies for members of default superannuation funds were exempt from the ban on conflicted remuneration. This meant that product issuers, life insurance companies, could continue to pay financial advisers high rates of upfront and trail commission to encourage the advisers to recommend their products."The witness statements received from the life insurers, Orr said, "showed that each of them paid commissions to financial advisers or financial advice entities whose clients purchased their products. "In the five-year period that we asked about, Zurich paid more than $113 million in commissions in respect of its life insurance products. "AMP paid more than $380 25 million. "MetLife paid more than $390 million, CMLA paid more than $460 million, Suncorp paid more than $590 million, Westpac paid more than $640 million and a further $112 million in grandfathered commissions in relation to life insurance arrangements within superannuation accounts. "AIA paid more than $690 million. OnePath paid more than $830 million. TAL paid more than $840 million. And MLC paid more than $1.16 billion in commissions," Orr said. In the rest of here overview, Orr said CBA "identified in over 60 specific matters of misconduct over the last five years that related to insurance. Of these, more than 30 related to life insurance."NAB-linked MLC, Orr said, "acknowledged that it had engaged in misconduct and conduct that fell below community standards and expectations in relation to the provision of life insurance" but not misconductANZ may be in for a bigger hammering than most banks in relation to insurance.ANZ acknowledged 17 instances of misconduct over the last five years that related to insurance, Orr said. In one case the bank "acknowledged that it engaged in misconduct between 2008 and 2013 when it delayed processing and allocating to members a total of $13.7 million being the proceeds of a class action of which OnePath Life was a member.