The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has issued a regulatory notice regarding the circumstances under which a federally regulated deposit taking institution can provide an insurance agent or broker with any information about their customers.

This advisory aims to provide clarification on how OSFI interprets the rules in the context of certain arrangements between DTIs and insurance companies, agents or brokers to market the DTI’s products or services.

OSFI says that several inquiries have raised an interpretation issue specifically with regard to the flow of information between a DTI and an insurance agent or broker in the context of an arrangement that, on the one hand, allows a DTI to gain additional business, and on the other hand, permits the agent to offer a broader spectrum of financial products or services to its clients. These queries involved two issues: when does a client of an insurance company, agent or broker become a customer of a DTI; and, what constitutes “information respecting a customer” of a DTI?

OSFI says it should be the insurance company, agent or broker that would promote the products and services of the DTI to its clients. As to when the client becomes a customer of the DTI, it says that it should not be until the DTI is notified that the client has accepted its terms and conditions for the product or service.

OSFI also says that the DTI can supply the insurance company, agent or broker with general information regarding its services and products, and the terms under which it is prepared to enter into a specific transaction, but that it should not provide information pertaining to the credit worthiness of a client.

http://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/eng/documents/advisories/docs/bp01e.pdf