Insurance regulators have published a summary of the comments they received on a discussion paper issued in June, which dealt with sales practices and disclosure issues, among other things.

The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) and the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations released the summary report on Nov. 4, 2005. The paper was prepared by the Industry Practices Review Committee to provide a summary of the responses received to the earlier consultation paper.

The IPRC has been collecting data about existing practices in the insurance industry through the questionnaires sent to insurance companies in the fall of 2004, the questionnaires that Autorité des marchés financiers and the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario sent to agents and brokers, and the consultation paper published on June 3. The IPRC review was broad and focused on best practices in managing potential conflicts of interest.

The IPRC has not made any recommendations to date and will now consider if recommendations should be made to the issues highlighted in the paper. At this stage, the effectiveness of existing regulatory and industry-led standards will be considered. Among other best practices, the IPRC will consider industry disclosure initiatives and will also look for opportunities to harmonize best practices, it notes.

If recommendations are made by the IPRC, there will be further consultations in the coming months. The IPRC will report back to CCIR and CISRO at their 2006 Spring meetings.

The IPRC will also take any additional comments into account, they can be submitted to the CCIR Secretariat.