Volume 62, Number 1, 1994

EN:

In the following speech delivered at a seminar organized by Le Monde juridique, M^e Jean-Marie Bouchard, Chief Inspector of Financial Institutions, takes stock of his ten years at the helm of this organization that oversees and controls financial institutions in Québec. He discusses the province's financial system and highlights its major building blocks, including the recasting of the legislative and regulatory framework and the founding of the organization he represents. Mr. Bouchard concludes with an outlook for the future, particularly from a standards point of view, the consolidation of the present system and the question of guidelines for a more flexible and efficient framework for Québec' s financial system.

EN:

As President and Chief Executive Officer of Dale-Parizeau inc., a subsidiary of Sodarcan inc., the author presents his views on the challenges that lie ahead for the property insurance industry in the wake of the major upheaval and realignment of financial services. After reviewing the features of world reinsurance and property insurance markets, Mr. Myre examines three major challenges: • the need for a customer-focused approach (ex.: valued-added services); • the strategic realignment of insurance companies according to market constraints and their specific strengths and weaknesses (ex.: targetting specific market segments, specialization); • enhanced productivity and cost reduction (precesses and work methods).

EN:

Financial markets are becoming increasingly concerned with evaluating the financial health of life insurance companies. Life insurers are no longer as solvent as they were in the past. This article aims to establish whether the American model developed by Ran Barniv and Robert A. Hershbarger would have been adequate to predict the bankruptcy of Les Coopérants, one of the first life insurance company to fail in Canada. The Barniv and Hershbarger model uses three types of multivariate analyses and has obtained very good classification ratings when it was validated. Using univariate and multivariate analyses, this article illustrates the effectiveness of the model by applying it to Les Coopérants and comparing it to two solvent companies: Assurance-vie Desjardins and Industrial-Alliance. The author also points out the important and significant variables in identifying the financial difficulties of a life insurer.

FR:

Le présent article s’attardera à l’étude de l’article 1615 du Code civil du Québec qui est de droit totalement nouveau puisqu’il prévoit la possibilité qu’un juge, saisi d’une demande pour dommages corporels, puisse réserver à la victime, dans son jugement final, le droit de demander une révision à la hausse des indemnités accordées et ce, dans les trois ans de la date du jugement. Ce changement législatif requerra, de l’avis de l’auteur, des adaptations importantes dans les polices d’assurance couvrant la responsabilité civile, puisqu’il faudra prévoir le sort des indemnités supplémentaires qui pourraient être octroyées à la victime jusqu’à trois ans après le jugement.

EN:

The author looks at Article 1615 of the new Civil Code of Québec which allows the court, when awarding damages for bodily injury, to reserve the right of the victim to apply for additional damage within a period of three years. According to the author, liability insurance policy workings must be recast to reflect this new law and accordingly provide for the additional damages that can be awarded to a victim up to three years after the court decision.

EN:

Political risks' market faced many changes during the last years. This is particularly true in the case of coverage on African risks. Paradoxically, only few countries from Africa are off cover. This situation is sometimes due to political, historical or economic reasons: some countries being hydrocarbons' exporters or under adjustment programs. But, more generally, banking and export-credits to Africa are decreasing. Insurers' behaviour is moving in the way of "disengagement". However, the management of political risks cannot be considered as unique. It depends on different factors like insurer's portfolio. This is why all attempt of harmonization will be difficult all the more as political risks is under de-politicization and criteria of underwriting are changing from risk-country to risk-project. But cooperation between export-credit insurers and between banks and insurers are highly desirable given decreasing capacities on insurance/reinsurance markets, marginalization of Africa in international trade and increasing difficulties of Africa in terms of access to private financing. In this context, it is worth to apply new approaches in terms of insurance even if the result will be new roles for banks, insurers and international organizations. This evolution will obviously not occur without African counterparts.