Saskatchewan brokers, credit unions debate ownership regulations

Saskatchewan’s insurance brokers are at odds with the province’s credit unions over regulations that allow credit unions to operate insurance brokerages only if the brokerages are “separate and distinct” from credit union premises.
The province’s Credit Union Insurance Business Regulations state: “No credit union shall carry on business in Canada in premises that are adjacent to an office of an insurance company, agent or broker unless the credit union clearly indicates to its members and customers that the credit union and its premises are separate and distinct from the office of the insurance company, agent or broker.”
Saskatchewan brokers say several credit unions have located their insurance operations within the same buildings as their financial operations, but have divided the operations using “glass walls,” in fulfillment of the requirements of the regulations.
“Our argument is that that does not constitute ‘separate and distinct,’ and so we are working with the regulators to get an interpretation out there that we feel is more accurate,” says Mark Stockford, the president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Saskatchewan (IBAS).
“We believe it should be in a separate building altogether. There should not be any adjoining walls, no openings from one operation to the next.
“Our big concern is that we don’t think the consumers recognize that [what credit unions are doing] as ‘separate and distinct.’ They walk into the credit union building to do their financial services and then walk across the hall and do their insurance. We feel that creates undue pressure on people to buy their insurance from the same people they get their mortgage from.”