CCIR seeks a more engaged dialogue between policymakers, insurers and the public

In an effort to boost the Canadian public’s relationship with the insurance industry, the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) has tweaked its strategic plan to focus on ways insurance regulators “can more profitably engage the policymakers in insurance issues.”
CCIR chair Danielle Boulet spoke about the CCIR’s strategic plan in a speech to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc. in Newfoundland on May 5, 2011.
Boulet said the CCIR has made it a strategic priority to pursue effective involvement with policy makers. This is to address a fundamental misunderstanding among Canadians that insurance regulators make policy, when in fact they do not. (Regulators implement policies passed by politicians in the legislatures.)
“As much as some of us might like it, insurance regulators do not have the rule-making authority that securities regulators enjoy,” Broulet said in notes for her speech. “So we have to focus on educating, building, understanding and getting the best information we can into the hands of our decision-makers.
“As well, it is the regulator’s responsibility to actively bridge the gap between policymakers and the industry as regulators have a unique window on the industry.”
Boulet’s remarks speak to a concern about consumer confidence in the insurance industry. Regulators can use consumer confidence as a barometer of the effectiveness of regulation, as well as the reputation of the industry as a whole.
“We are distressed watching the increasing disregard the public has for the insurance industry,” Boulet said. “It seems to us there is an erosion of the credibility of the insurance promise that is not based on any rational thinking, but which has gained credence throughout our society.”
This highlights the importance of elevating the level of engagement between all parties – policymakers, regulators and industry members, Boulet said.
A more engaged dialogue between the public, policymakers and regulators is required to “make improvements that will halt that erosion and return the insurance industry to the trusted position it once held, and deserved to hold, in the minds of the public,” she said.