December 21, 2005 Insurance Organization

On October 11, 2005, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), together with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), launched the new Complaint Reporting System (www.srp-crs.ca This link will open in a new window). The purpose of the new Web-based system is to allow better compliance by all businesses in the financial products and services industry with their consumer complaint reporting requirement.

Roll-out of the Complaint Reporting System is taking place over a period of a few months. Accordingly, since October of 2005, insurers in Québec and Ontario have been receiving all the information needed to access the system.

In November and December, all firms and independent partnerships contemplated by Bill 188 as well as securities advisers and securities dealers who are not members of the IDA began to have access the system. To that effect, the AMF has been mailing all the necessary information and access codes for use of the new system. Users also have access to a customer support service offered by the AMF.

Complaint reports must be sent to the AMF twice a year: for the period from January 1st to June 30th and for the period from July 1st to December 31st. Consequently, since July 1, 2005, businesses have been required to collect complaint data in accordance with the new criteria. Complaint reports must be received by the AMF within 30 days following the end of each period. Complaints compiled between July 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005 will have to be reported to the AMF before January 30, 2006.

You can consult the information relating to the processing of complaints, on the AMF's website at.