The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has granted an order to wind up the Canadian branch of The Home Insurance Co.

Mr. Justice Farley appointed Deloitte and Touche Inc. as the provisional liquidator. These actions follow the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions having taken control of the Canadian branch on June 18.

In March of this year, Home’s U.S. operation was placed under an Order of Rehabilitation and began operating under the control of the Commissioner of Insurance for the State of New Hampshire. However, efforts to rehabilitate were unsuccessful and the company was put into liquidation in the U.S. and declared insolvent on June 13.

Due to the issuance of the U.S. liquidation order, the OSFI formed the opinion that the liquidation of the company in the U.S. would adversely affect the Canadian branch and so took the necessary actions to protect policyholders and creditors in Canada.

Previously, in 1997, OSFI had restricted the Canadian branch’s order to the servicing of existing policies and frozen the vested assets held in Canada because of financial difficulties the U.S. company was experiencing at the time.

The Canadian branch of The Home Insurance Company is located in Toronto and operated by an external chief agent. There are no company employees working in Canada. The provisional liquidator will be responsible for winding up the branch.