Brokers in New Brunswick have expressed cautious optimism about a new commission in New Brunswick that will oversee financial services in the province, effective July 1, 2013.
“Our first look at it, we believe it’s a positive thing,” said Andrew McNair, chief executive officer of the Insurance Brokers Association of New Brunswick. “We’ve been working towards some type of model like that. We wanted to have a regulatory agency overseeing licensing, an agency that had some industry experience and knowledge to make sure everybody interpreting the regulations understands how things work in the industry.”
McNair said the broker association had submitted a proposal to government about a year ago to work towards having a type of insurance council model in the province. Brokers were somewhat caught unaware of the government’s timetable to introduce the new agency, since the government didn’t seem to have a typical public consultation period.
Marie-Claude Blais, the province’s minister of justice and attorney general, announced the creation of the new agency when introducing the new legislation on May 23. (continued.)
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The new Financial and Consumer Services Commission will continue to be responsible for the current mandate of the New Brunswick Securities Commission. It will also be responsible for consumer affairs, credit unions, caisses populaires, co-operatives and trust companies, insurance and pensions.
“In creating this new commission, we are providing New Brunswickers with a more effective regulator and a ‘one-stop shop’ for consumers and industry alike,” Blais said in the legislature. “In bringing these services under one roof…we are making the regulation of financial services stronger, more effective and better resourced.”
Brokers are optimistic that the new agency will have personnel with the right experience to regulate the insurance portfolio. Brokers in the province have struggled in the past when regulators have defined licensing requirements in a way that imposed logistical difficulties on brokerages.
For example, the regulator once took the position that supervisors in brokerages had to physically oversee their Level I licensed agents. Brokers at the time said the superintendent’s interpretation of law made it very difficult for brokers to comply, based on the fact that brokerages had offices scattered throughout the province.
Brokers are following closely to make sure the commission has an effective appeal process, said McNair. “If a decision comes down with which a broker or company does
