February 8, 2008

Re: Questionnaire on Insurer Practices for Managing Conflicts of Interests

On June 21, 2006, the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) and the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO) endorsed three principles for managing actual or potential conflicts of interest in the marketplace. These principles promote consumer confidence in the insurance industry by outlining best practices for managing these situations when they arise. They are:

1. Priority of the client’s interest;
2. Disclosure of conflicts or potential conflicts of interest; and
3. Product suitability.

To assess the implementation of these principles by insurers and the overall effectiveness of a principles-based regulatory regime, FSCO on behalf of the CCIR’s Industry Practices Review Committee (IPRC) is requesting that insurers complete a risk-based market conduct questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed to collect information from insurers across Canada about their current practices for managing conflicts in the marketplace.

All Chief Executive Officers and Chief Agents are requested to certify that the information provided in the questionnaire responses represents the current practices of their respective companies. For record keeping purposes, the certified paper copy will be considered the official document.

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) is collecting this information on behalf of the regulators of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador.

The information is being requested pursuant to each regulators’ respective legislation. The regulators appreciate that the responses requested may contain confidential trade, technical or financial information. The regulators will treat it as such, recognizing that confidentiality and access to information are governed by the relevant legislation in each jurisdiction. If your response contains information that you consider to be confidential trade, technical or financial information, you may wish to indicate this in the questionnaire.

Companies are requested to complete the questionnaire both online and by paper.

Companies should complete the paper version before completing the online version. The information in the certified paper version will be considered the official version. To facilitate this process, FSCO has mailed to each company a paper copy of the questionnaire. A fillable MS Word version can be downloaded by clicking the link below.

To access the online questionnaire, click on the link below and enter the access code which was provided in the February 8, 2008 letter that FSCO mailed to each company.

On or before March 14, 2008 , all companies are required to complete the questionnaire online.

The certified paper questionnaire should be received by FSCO on or before March 24, 2008 . Please send the paper questionnaire to:

Attn: Seta Singh, Administrative Assistant
Financial Services Commission of Ontario
Licensing & Market Conduct Division
5160 Yonge Street , 4 th Floor, Box 85
Toronto , Ontario , M2N 6L9

Should you have any questions or concerns, please call our dedicated questionnaire help line at (416) 590-7126. You may also e-mail your questions to IPRC@FSCO.GOV.ON.CA.

To access the questionnaires, please click on the following links:

Life Insurance Companies – [ MS Word Version ] – [Online Version ]

General (P&C) Insurance Companies – [ MS Word Version ] – [Online Version]