Quebec's financial services regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), has reached an agreement with Scotia Life Insurance Company (ScotiaLife), under which the insurer has agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $500,000 for violations related to the distribution of life insurance products in the province.

The AMF sanctioned Scotia Life for offering accidental life insurance, free accidental death insurance, and hospitalization insurance products during an 18-year-period through employees of a telemarketing firm who were not licensed to act as intermediaries.

Over the last five years, ScotiaLife has sold more than 25,000 policies and collected between $8,676,993 and $10,050,345 in premiums through these activities.

Scotia Life has already ceased offering the aforementioned insurance products and says it has implemented the necessary measures to ensure that the distribution of all its products is in accordance with Quebec's legislation.