Five financial services sector associations – the Canadian Bankers Association, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and The Investment Funds Institute of
Canada – have agreed to form the Financial Services Council of Canada to better coordinate their efforts on legislative, regulatory and policy issues in which they have a common interest.

“The Council is an idea whose time has arrived. We share customers and therefore we share issues,” says Joe Oliver, President and CEO of the IDA. “Most consumers hold a range of financial services products including investment stocks and bonds and mutual funds, bank accounts, life and health insurance and insurance coverage for their home and car.”

“Given the increasing convergence of financial products and of financial services providers, it is important to coordinate and integrate our approaches to regulations and regulatory structures that are frequently overlapping,” says Ray Protti, President and CEO of the CBA.

The Council is an informal body comprising the heads of the member industry associations. Its primary purposes are:

– Provide a forum to address broad issues affecting the overall role of the financial services sector in Canada’s economy;
– Coordinate work on legislative, regulatory and policy issues of common interest.
– Use industry resources more efficiently through avoiding duplication of effort on such issues.

Tom Hockin, President and CEO of IFIC says, “Increasing competitive pressures have necessitated heightened efficiency among Canada’s financial services companies. The same is true for their Associations and the Council will contribute to those ongoing efforts.”

“We will not agree on every policy issue, nor do we expect to,” says George Anderson, President and CEO of IBC. “Where we can find common cause and understanding, and coordinate our respective efforts in a single direction, it will benefit financial consumers and financial services providers, as well as governments.”

The inaugural Chair of the Council for 2002 is Mark Daniels, President of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. “The Council is a logical next step in the growing cooperation over recent years among its member associations,” says Daniels.