What’s New: In Brief (May 21, 2009)

The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) is poised to roll out the national expansion of its complaints reporting system, which was first implemented in Ontario and Quebec.
“The system work on the expanded [national] system, being led by the L’Autorité des marchés financiers, Québec, is on track for a July 1st, 2009 rollout,” the CCIR reported in its March 2009 Spring Meeting minutes.
Since January 2005, Quebec and Ontario have worked together to develop a simplified, Internet-based system for the reporting and tracking of complaints. The system is now operational in these two provinces.
“The CRS Working Group [of the CCIR] is exploring the possibility of using Webinars — interactive Internet seminars — for communications with stakeholders on the [national] rollout as a cost-effective option that will save travel and other costs,” the CCIR said.  

ACORD, a global insurance data standards body, has bestowed its Innovative Implementation Award upon Temple Insurance and Frank Cowan Company for their work in improving information exchange in commercial insurance. 
“We were familiar with ACORD through reinsurance projects we had completed in the London Market,” said Peter Walker, executive vice president and CIO of Temple Insurance Company.
“Although the Canadian managing general agent (MGA) business environment is different, we felt we could leverage our knowledge and understanding” of ACORD to streamline the exchange of data with clients in the Canadian context, he added.
ACORD said its standards have been widely used for personal lines and commercial lines in the United States, and have received acceptance in the London market with reinsurance transactions. But “the Canadian implementation is unique functionally and geographically, and shows the extensibility of the data standards.”