CCIR publishes draft best practices for conducting regulatory surveys

The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) is seeking comment from the insurance industry on its issues paper, Best Practices for Regulatory Surveys.”The implementation of the principles outlined in the CCIR paper An Approach to Risk-Based Market Conduct Regulation has resulted in a noticeable increase in the number of information-gathering surveys that various insurance regulators have sent to industry,” the CCIR notes in its issues paper. “At times, very similar information has been sought in separate surveys by different regulators.”CCIR said insurance companies have approached it with some concerns about the increasing number of surveys. Their concerns include the burden associated with answering an expanding number of surveys; the lack of a consistent approach to industry pre-consultation; a variety of different survey styles (some not suitable for a given topic); and a lack of coordination among regulators, resulting in multiple surveys needing to be completed within similar time frames.CCIR’s draft best practices for conducting regulatory surveys include:•Developing a project plan that clearly states the problem the regulator is trying to address and clarifies the intended use of the survey.•A consideration of whether the data or information could be obtained in any other way, or by means of surrogate data or information.•Coordination among regulators, including a consideration of whether information gathered in multiple jurisdictions should be working through the CCIR, in addition to realizing the potential for regulators to invite other regulators to join in a survey.•Survey design, including privacy considerations and whether the survey medium (paper, electronic, telephone, in person) is appropriate to the subject matter.•Industry Consultation.•Communication of the results, which should be published, where appropriate, on the regulator’s Web site.The deadline for comments is June 30, 2011.