There was a big push by Canadian property and casualty insurance companies in 2014/15 to implement a whole host of new regulatory procedures relating to Corporate Governance, Regulatory Compliance Management (RCM), Own Risk and Solvency Assessments (ORSA), Minimum Capital Tests (MCT) changes as well as new disaggregation of certain data requested on financial reporting forms. Add to this the ongoing privacy, market conduct, demutualization (in at least one case), IFRS accounting and pressures to document uncertain tax positions concerns. It is perhaps not surprising that several recent surveys which have asked about the top risks affecting federally registered financial institutions have cited changes to and the extent of the regulatory and compliance burden as a top risk in itself. Those respondents will be happy to know that the coming year will be a comparatively quiet period for such changes. Unfortunately, “comparatively quiet” does not equate with “quiet”. This article looks back at some of the recent changes, regulations in progress and what the future may hold.
