Insurer agrees to pay $30K to B.C. authority for alleged illegal operation in province

Canadian cash is shown. (Shutterstock.com)

An insurance company has agreed to pay the B.C. Financial Services Authority more than $30,000 over allegations it insured an aircraft based in the province when it was not licensed to do so.

In a voluntary compliance agreement posted on the BCFSA website earlier this week, ION Insurance Company agreed to pay $30,000 in lieu of the authority formally imposing an administrative penalty. It also agreed to pay the BCFSA $4,175 to partially reimburse the cost of the authority's investigation. 

Both amounts are due on Sept. 15, according to the agreement.

The agreement provides relatively few details about what happened, describing ION only as "an extraprovincial corporation" that is not authorized to operate in B.C. under the province's Financial Institutions Act.

"The Superintendent of Financial Institutions is of the opinion that ION carried on the business of insurance in British Columbia by offering and agreeing to provide aircraft insurance to a British Columbia company covering an aircraft primarily located in British Columbia and collected a premium on the contract of insurance without authorization under the FIA," the agreement reads.

It does not specify which B.C. company owned the aircraft, nor where in the province it was based.

"ION accepts that the Superintendent is of the opinion that the breach of the FIA has occurred, as alleged," the agreement continues, adding that the company is "committed to future compliance" with B.C.'s laws.