Alberta risk sharing pools among the largest in North America

On a written exposure basis (or one car insured for one year), Alberta’s risk sharing pools (RSP) are the fourth largest in North America on a combined basis, the Facility Association says in its report to the Automobile Insurance Rate Board.In 2008, Alberta’s RSPs held 8.8% of market share. The grid RSP represented 6.2%, and the non-grid RSP 2.7%.“On a written exposure basis, the combined Alberta RSPs remain among the largest residual market mechanisms in North America, behind only Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and North Carolina,” the FA said in its submission to the AIRB.“In fact, there are only six North American jurisdictions (five out of which are in Canada) where residual market mechanisms have more than 5% market share.”A total of 193,191 exposures were transferred to the RSPs in 2008, marking a decrease from the 221,455 exposures in 2007.As with written premium, written exposures declined in each RSP. The number of exposures transferred to the Grid RSP decreased by approximately 18,950 to 134,700 and exposures transferred to the Non-Grid RSP decreased by approximately 9,300 to 58,491.