Insurers insist on paperwork

THE EDITOR: Under an amendment to the Proceeds of Crime Act, Chapter 11:27, the Central Bank of TT (CBTT), since 2019, has pointed out that insurance agents, insurance brokers and insurance companies conducting non-life insurance business are exempted from the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements.

However, some of our local insurers seem to be aggressively competing for the award of the most regressive society in the universe (not world) by insisting that brokers still comply with the requirements when clearly the CBTT has removed the tedious paperwork.

Can you comprehend that major insurance companies are still applying pressure to agents and brokers to produce the paperwork that is now exempted under the act?

Although the agents and brokers are all exempt from the AML/CFT requirements, can you guess what these rigid, inflexible, bureaucratic insurers did since 2019 when the requirements were removed? Absolutely nothing.

The simple reason this decision was taken was because the risk of money laundering occurring during a general insurance transaction is near nil.

However, apparently these ancient-thinking insurance companies want to kill the world's forest trees to ensure the bureaucracy continues so that we have more and more paperwork. So they continue to request "know your customer" forms, proof of address from customers, two forms of identification, a utility bill, and more unnecessary information no longer required to effect the insurance coverage.

So, rather than saving paper and avoiding frustration and stress, we use more resources, cutting down more trees and destroying the planet. Yes, I’m being sarcastic but wouldn’t you love to put every single CEO to justify this nonsensical approach? Pretty certain they won't be able to respond.

One major insurer is a classic contender in this regard. The brokers get away from providing AML/CFT documents until there is a claim. They then delay paying the claim until they receive every single piece of AML/CFT documentation. Ouch! Thus putting tremendous stress on the client to keep operations going.

There is a definite need for the regulator to look at certain insurers who are continuing to operate like this and then make lowball offers to their clients and third parties and never respond to correspondence unless legal action is taken.

What is needed is closer monitoring and pressure on insurers to ease up on the brokers and pay claims within reasonable timeframes. Maybe there is a good reason for insisting on practising something they complained so much about to the regulators about doing in the first instance. However, any sane person would want to know the real reason. It’s mind-boggling.

Please help me understand.

DR NEIL GOSINE

via e-mail