Members of the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) plan to work more closely in their efforts to supervise and share information about insurance companies and advisors.

The CCIR outlined its plans for greater collaboration and information in its Framework for Cooperative Market Conduct Supervision in Canada, which was released last week. The regulators describe their approach as "robust and effective" but say it "does not impose an undue burden on market participants".

At the heart of this framework are three Insurance Core Principles (ICPs) that were adopted by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors in 2011: ICP 18 outlines conduct requirements for intermediaries to ensure that they are doing business in a professional and transparent manner, ICP 19 sets out consumer protection and conduct of business standards, and ICP 25 explains how regulators should cooperate and coordinate their efforts with supervisors in other jurisdictions.

The framework notes that provincial regulators will share complaint and investigation statistics, which they will use to identify broader concerns and trends in the market. The Canadian insurance authorities also plan to exchange information about new insurance products and major changes to companies' operations (such as new underwriting criteria and changes in distribution methods) in order to determine if they pose a risk to consumers.

"Protecting consumers and ensuring they are treated fairly by market participants is the essence of government policy and law pertaining to market conduct in insurance," concludes the CCIR document. "Indeed market conduct regulation aims to prevent (and manage when prevention is not entirely possible) the dangers that arise from a regulated entity conducting its business in ways that are unfair to consumers or undermine the integrity of the business of insurance and public confidence in the insurance sector as a whole."