The company's application to join the Investment Savings and Insurance Association has been turned down so it won't be providing sales figures to the associations quarterly survey.

Partners Life chief executive Naomi Ballantyne says she was told the application was turned down as the association wanted to monitor the new company's behavior.

She said that referred to how Partners Life would handle transfer of business.

Ballantyne says the although the company was denied membership it would still observe the ISI's policy on transfers.

ISI chief executive Peter Nielson confirmed the membership had not been accepted at this stage, but he left the door open for future membership.

"I don't think anybody has been turned down per se," he said.

"It's incorrect to say somebody's been rejected. It's simply a matter of working out the time in which it would be appropriate and on what basis."

"I think it was just simply a question of the timing in which that [their application] would be received in terms of when the organisation was in operation. I think that was what the nature of the response was, it wasn't us saying no forever, simply saying not at this stage."

Citing the fact that membership procedures were under review as part of a general review of the organisation, Neilson said he was unable to comment further, however he did hold out an olive branch for Partners Life.

"I have a plan to visit and talk to Naomi at some point hopefully about those matters."