Insurance Blogs hosted by Canadian Underwriter
Insurance Blogs hosted by Canadian Underwriter
As the marketplace becomes ever more digital, it becomes increasingly easy for consumers to engage in comparison-shopping. This is true for a wide range of products and services. It is certainly true when it comes to many types of insurance.…
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InsurTech (Insurance Technology) is a hot topic in the insurance community these days. But how significant is the digital trend and how urgently do we have to respond? The recent Insurance-Canada.ca Executive Forum (ICEF2016) provided insight. What do we do…
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The so-called “age of the customer” we live in is driven by several factors, especially technologies such as smartphones and mobile apps that put more control and choice into customers’ hands than ever before. Forrester Research has dubbed this phenomenon…
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This summer, the threat of a labour stoppage at Canada Post has caused many people and institutions to reconsider just how crucial mail delivery is to their business. In the insurance industry, we have already taken great strides to minimize…
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We often marvel at the speed of technological advancement, but every so often one development stands out. Consider that just eight years after Steve Jobs introduced the App Store, mobile apps may become much less prevalent than today. Their replacement:…
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The Ontario government should establish a new organization that would perform the functions currently performed by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) and the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario (DICO), an expert advisory panel said in a report released Monday.
The panel recommends that a new Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) be established, and it should exercise both prudential and market conduct functions. The panel – comprised of George Cooke, James Daw and Lawrence Ritchie – made its recommendation to create FSRA in an interim report released in November, 2015. The final report, dated March 31, was made public Monday and contains 44 recommendations.
The mandate review was partly made necessary with the transfer of responsibility for operating an auto insurance dispute resolution system from FSCO to Ministry of the Attorney General’s Licence Appeal Tribunal on April 1, 2016.
Governance
The report suggests that FSRA should consolidate functions, but it should have separate divisions for the regulation of market conduct; prudential oversight; and pension administration. These divisions of the regulator should operate in a coordinated manner, but each division should be insulated from the routine regulatory activities, pressures and resource demands of other divisions.
FSRA should be a self-funded corporation without share capital, operationally independent of government, yet accountable to the Legislature through the Minister of Finance. The FSRA should be outside of the Ontario Public Service and be empowered to hire its personnel from outside of the Ontario Public Service’s collective agreements, compensation restraints, and other hiring restraints to support its ability to recruit professionals and industry expertise as it deems necessary.
FSRA should have a skills-based Board of Directors appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The Board would oversee FSRA’s operations and the Board should have the authority to appoint a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The Board Chair should report directly to the Minister of Finance.
FSRA’s Board should be given authority to make rules that would be enforceable pursuant to the statute, having a similar authority as Cabinet Regulations.
Auto Insurance Rate Regulation
The panel did not make any recommendations with respect to the prior approval of auto insurance. However, it did recommend that FSRA’s Board should be obliged and empowered to decide how auto insurance rates are to be regulated and make use of its rule-making authority to scope out a rate approval process.
The view of the panel is that when it comes to the regulation of automobile insurance rates, FSCO is not ultimately protecting the public interest or enhancing confidence in the sector.
Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund
The panel recommends that responsibility for operating the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund (MVACF) be transferred to the Facility Association (FA), a non-profit organization funded by automobile insurers in the provinces and territories that operate private insurance systems. This responsibility would fit well with the FA’s original purpose, which is to act as the ‘insurer of last resort’ for high-risk drivers. The FA already operates uninsured motorist funds similar to the MVACF in the Atlantic Provinces.
Fraud Prevention
The panel indicated that the new mandate should require FSRA to utilize its statutory authorities to adequately, firmly and consistently discourage fraudulent activities or behaviours that mislead or harm consumers and pension plan beneficiaries.
FSRA should be directed to identify and seek to eliminate gaps in protection for consumers who might be defrauded by licensed sales agents, brokers and corporations. FSRA should also have the authority to establish a fraud compensation fund such as exists in Quebec if or where enhancements to mandatory insurance coverage would not fully close current gaps.
There is no word from the government on implementing the panel’s recommendations.
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“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” – Oscar Wilde Clearly, Mr. Wilde – expert as he was at crafting witticisms – never spent any time in an insurance office. Our industry has a longstanding history…
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At Amplify 2016, I attended several insurance-focused sessions, including hosting an industry dinner. I came away from the conference with three key observations: Insurers are eager to use mobile to initiate and sustain industry-leading digital customer engagement. The trick for insurers is seamlessly merging a customer‘s various digital and physical interactions into one unified and […]
The post How to Create Industry-Leading Digital Customer Engagement appeared first on Insurance Industry.
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Your professional development has never been more cutting-edge. Consider the fascinating research of Qui Trieu, manager of personal insurance at Perth Insurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Economical Insurance. Qui (pronounced as ‘key’) is currently a candidate in the Insurance…
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Economical Insurance has now launched its direct digital brand, Sonnet. I was privileged to attend a meeting with the senior executive team at Economical to preview Sonnet’s product offering. Based on what I was shown, this new product offering could…
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A few weeks ago, I mentioned an upcoming IBM Institute for Business Value study, and now it is available: “Innovating insurance: Lessons from the world’s leading innovators”. Insurance has traditionally been slow to innovate. Or if you prefer a more liberal interpretation of innovation – Continue reading
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A couple of posts ago (Why ‘just-in-time’ insurance would be a non-starter) I answered a question that I get asked at least a few times a year: ‘Why not allow consumers to purchase insurance just before a foreseeable loss is…
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Just how much has the sharing, or gig economy changed our world? A cursory Google search on the topic will usually turn up this common description: The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most valuable retailer,…
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For our Random Thoughts post today, I thought I’d summarize interesting reads my colleagues at IBV published over the last year (and some of mine, too ). Let’s start cross-industry: About a year ago, Carolyn Baird showed the “Myths, exaggerations and uncomfortable truths” about millennials Continue reading
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