Provincial regulators likely to increase focus on regulating market conduct

Provincial regulators will likely put more focus on regulating market conduct of insurers, according to Doug McLean, executive director of British Columbia’s Financial Institutions Commission’s insurance department.
McLean spoke as a panelist at the National Insurance Conference of Canada (NICC) in Vancouver on Sept. 26. The panel discussed the modernization of the international and Canadian regulatory regimes.
When asked, “What changes are likely to result to the Canadian regulatory framework as a result of international changes?” McLean noted the International Association of Insurance Supervisors [IAIS] was meeting in Seoul, Korea to approve core principles for the insurance market.
“We as a regulator [at FICOM] are interested in those principles dealing with market conduct,” McLean said. “In the past, this organization [IAIS] has focused on solvency, but they’ve changed their focus to include market conduct as well.
“So, what does that mean for us as a provincial regulator? We will probably see increased scrutiny of market conduct of insurers by provincial regulators.”
Market conduct regulation will become more risk-based, McLean predicted, and provincial regulators will likely be influenced to become more consistent in their approach to regulating market conduct.