A life insurance company has admitted to 303,000 criminal breaches of the law through its use of a pushy cold call sales force that intentionally upset potential customers in the hope they would make "grudge purchases" of its products.

The admissions by ASX-listed life insurance group Clearview came as the banking royal commission turned its gaze to the life insurance sector.

The royal commission heard on Monday that Clearview – a company born out of NRMA's life insurance business and later owned by BUPA – made about 250,000 calls to BUPA customers between 2013 and 2016. Potential customers were also contacted after Clearview purchased troves of personal data from other companies.

Clearview chief risk officer Greg Martin told the commission he believed the company had breached laws banning the hawking of insurance products when its call centres sold insurance directly to customers.