CEOs call for improved legislation, ADR and enforcement to fight auto insurance fraud

Stronger legislation, improvements in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and better enforcement is required to tackle auto insurance fraud, according to members of a CEO panel at the 91st Annual Conference of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) in Toronto on Oct. 20.
Aviva Canada president and CEO Maurice Tulloch lauded Ontario’s insurance regulator, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), for being “very progressive” on the issue of auto fraud. But the laws addressing insurance crime still need to be tweaked, he suggested.
“Insurance crime is still not something that’s easy to prosecute,” he said. “And good luck finding the time in a court where the judge will actually look at the case.
“We also need the colleges that manage the different disciplines in the health sectors to be accountable. The vast majority of their members are hard-working members, but they absolutely have to be accountable for those who commit these crimes.”
George Cooke, president and CEO of The Dominion, echoed the sentiment. “If there’s weak or no enforcement, there’s no deterrent [to commit insurance crime]….We have to change the way the legislation works so that it’s preventative and a deterrent.”