Re-shuffling the Deck

In an effort to streamline its focus, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has embarked upon its first major review in over a decade. The renewal process took place amid suggestions that two of the Bureau’s largest members – The Economical Insurance Group and The Co-operators – planned to leave the organization. In fact, both Kathy Bardswick, president and CEO of The Co-operators and Noel Walpole, president and CEO of the Economical, now sit on the renewal process steering committee alongside six other insurance industry representatives.

CONSULTATION

The IBC retained an outside consultant from Intersol Consulting Inc. to identify concerns and problems flagged by member organizations and other non-member stakeholders. Recommendations flowing from the consult revealed members wanted the organization to establish a common ground encompassing the concerns of all its diverse members. Given the diversity of the organization’s membership, the consultations revealed a common industry vision was critical for the IBC to successfully identify and adopt issues of organization-wide importance.

Acting on this feedback, IBC president and CEO Stan Griffin said in April the steering committee proposed its first set of recommendations to the IBC board of directors; hence, the new IBC vision statement was born. “The industry vision statement is consumers and governments trust, value and support the private property and casualty insurance industry and its products and services,” Griffin said.

“We wanted to ensure the industry vision statement could be measured so we can gauge and recognize if we were succeeding and delivering on our vision,” Griffin explained.

The vision statement expresses four key measurable outcomes including: trust, value, support and the health of the industry itself, measured by profitability and competition.

Defining the vision and establishing methods to measure its success represent only the first leg of the renewal voyage, according to Griffin.

The next passage requires generating “filters” that will aid the IBC in strategically determining what issues coincide with the industry vision and subsequently add value to all members.

FILTERS

Moving forward under the new vision statement, Griffin said the IBC will only tackle issues supportive of the industry vision; it will not disadvantage any segment of the membership in the process. In addition, although it does not intend to inhibit innovation or competition, the IBC plans to address only those areas related to lines of business currently assessed within the IBC’s regimen.

“The committee will put a number of issues through this filter system and decide on logical areas, ignoring those that fall outside the filter,” Griffin said.

Discussion of distribution issues is the first and likely the most controversial exclusion under the new filtering system, according to Griffin.

He told Canadian Underwriter that distribution is a no-fly zone for the IBC because it “could be extremely divisive to certain members.”

Other areas on which the IBC will not comment or take a position include:

* pure tort vs. pure no-fault as the preferred insurance system;

* individual company practices; and

* assessment of excluded lines of business that are not currently assessed for members (i.e. hail, marine, accident and sickness and assurity).

Griffin said even issues that garner overall industry agreement might not be deemed significant enough to receive IBC involvement.

Governance may also change under the renewal process. The IBC consultations revealed some members perceived weakness in the overall governance of the association. In response, the IBC has revamped its board of directors.

“The first thing we did was to disband the board’s executive committee,” Griffin said. “The executive, nominating and strategic planning committees were all disbanded, with the objective of making sure the board became the sole committee responsible for the strategic direction.”

Griffin said this new streamlined vision has allowed the IBC to focus on its transparency, creating an example for its members to maintain an equal level of transparency in their position with the IBC.