IBC board may revisit distribution issue in its mandate

The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s board of directors will discuss whether the IBC’s mandate should be revised to include a discussion about distribution issues, Jean Francois Blais, president and CEO of Axa Canada said.
Blais was a member of the CEO panel during the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario’s annual convention in Toronto.
The question ‘Do you believe that insurers’ voices as members of the IBC are heard when it has allowed bank-owned insurers to become members?’ was posed.
In 2005 and 2006 the IBC undertook a review of how it was operating, known internally as ‘the Renewal Effort.’
The IBC’s mandate was changed at that time, by consensus, to remove the issue of distribution from its purview and allow bank-owned insurers to become members, Blais explained.
“It was during the same period there was a lot of disagreement between the companies on how to resolve distribution issues,” added fellow panel member George Cooke, president and CEO of the Dominion. “So, rather than talking about it and resolving it, they said ‘forget about it’ and shrunk the mandate of IBC and allowed the banks to come in.”
Cooke argued that the decision to allow banks to become members makes IBC a less relevant body to consumers because “it’s not permitted by its governors to speak to a number of issues that are very important to consumers. The use of credit and credit scoring is one of them, because it has to do with distribution.”
With the IBC currently in search of a new president and CEO and chairman of its board of directors Blais said that the issue will be revisited once those positions are occupied.