RIBO fines insurer for using out-of-province call centre employees unlicensed in Ontario

Ontario’s broker regulator, Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO), has fined Johnson Inc. Cdn$5,000 because Johnson’s out-of-province call centre employees were not licensed by RIBO to deal directly with members of the public in Ontario.
Johnson pleaded guilty during misconduct hearings that focused on the information an Ontario client received about auto insurance from Johnson’s out-of-province call centre employees.
According to the decision of a RIBO discipline committee, a client went onto the Johnson Web site and obtained a quotation for auto insurance.
He completed an application indicating he was the principal operator of a vehicle, of which there was only one in the household. Johnson issued a policy based on this fact, listing the applicant’s wife and daughter as the secondary drivers of the vehicle.
But when Johnson did a check of the applicant’s insurance history, it found he had two other vehicles registered to him that were insured elsewhere.
Johnson cancelled its first policy and issued a second policy. The premium was higher for the second policy, which had listed the daughter as being the principal driver instead of the applicant.
The applicant told RIBO that when he had received the second policy in the mail, it was the first time he had heard of the issue. He told RIBO that Johnson employees had never asked him initially whether or not there were any other vehicles in the household.
“The issue which the panel had to contend with is that, in pursuing this matter the applicant was in discussions with an out-of-province call centre operated by Johnson Inc.,” RIBO noted in its Spring 2008 bulletin. “The call centre was staffed by employees who, in this case, were dealing directly with members of the public in Ontario. These individuals were not licensed by RIBO. This is in direct contravention of the RIBO Act, Code of Conduct, section 14(12)”