What’s New: In Brief (February 26, 2010)

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) does not plan to establish standalone, insurance facilities of the type that Royal Bank of Canada is opening.
In an interview with Bloomberg Business Week, CIBC CEO Gerald McCaughey is cited as saying CIBC won’t pursue building insurance branches or selling insurance on the Internet as part of its future business plans.
“Our [objective] is to continue focusing on our creditor insurance business as well as the sales through our advisers within CIBC Wood Gundy,” he is quoted as saying. “The building of standalone facilities is not in our current plans.”

Bermuda’s new top insurance regulator, Bermuda Monetary Authority CEO Jeremy Cox, intends to update the island’s regulation, “including stepping up the supervisory framework for insurance groups in order to meet new international standards,” the Mar. 1, 2010 edition of BestWeek reports.
Cox told BestWeek that his top goal is to achieve regulatory equivalence with the European Union. “Probably the most critical objective that we have for this year is the implementation of group-wide supervision.”
In February 2010, BMA proposed to establish a framework for group supervision as part of a plan to meet Solvency II requirements.