Canadian consumers and insurance industry participants will now have access to the names of persons and firms disciplined within the insurance industry through the Canadian Insurance Regulators Disciplinary Actions (CIRDA), a new database designed to be a single point of access for decisions taken by multiple Canadian insurance regulators.
This joint initiative of the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organization (CISRO) and the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) has created a repository of public actions taken since 2008 by insurance regulators against insurance companies, insurance intermediaries and individuals licensed to sell insurance products.
While most insurance regulators have been publishing disciplinary actions for many years, some have only recently been granted the legislative authority to publish, and others have no authority to publish. (See Investment Executive, CCIR considers a national database, January 2013.)
The process followed for publishing decisions varies by jurisdiction. Disciplinary actions in the new database will be presented in the same format as they currently appear on individual regulatory websites.
The new database can be accessed at http://decisions.cisro-ocra.com/ as of December 1.
A link to the database will also be provided on the CCIR’s website. Individual insurance regulators that comprise the membership of CISRO and CCIR may also provide a link to the disciplinary decision database.
“We are very pleased to offer the public this significant improvement in search capabilities”, said Ron Fullan, Chairperson of CISRO and Executive Director of the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan. “Further,
“By eliminating the need to search across multiple databases to obtain regulatory decisions, each provincial insurance regulator will have improved access to timely information that may enable them to make better decisions about their own registrants and applicants,” said Ron Fullan, CISRO chairman and executive director of the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan, in a release.
“We expect the CIRDA database to be a great assistance to consumers, industry members and regulators alike to find information about insurance agents and brokers. CCIR is very pleased to have played an integral part in this project,” said Carolyn Rogers, CCIR chairwoman.