CEO and Superintendent Tolga Yalkin delivers remarks at Canadian Association of Financial Institutions in Insurance Conference

• Industry Communications

8 April 2025

Speech | Tolga Yalkin — Toronto, April 8, 2025

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Good afternoon, and thank you for the warm welcome. I’m grateful for the opportunity to join you today, early in my tenure as CEO of BC Financial Services Authority, to share a few reflections on where I see our work heading – and how it intersects with yours.

Let me begin with what we share.

Canadian Association of Financial Institutions in Insurance (“CAFII”) and BCFSA are united by a common purpose: ensuring that consumers in B.C. – and across Canada – can access insurance products that are fair, appropriate, and protective of their financial wellbeing. Products that support them through loss or disruption, that provide peace of mind, and that reflect the diversity of financial lives today.

CAFII’s members play a central role in delivering that value. Your reach, innovation, and research – including your ongoing work with Pollara – demonstrate a deep commitment to understanding the real consumer experience.

That commitment, paired with your focus on fair treatment outcomes, is more than commendable – it’s essential. In a landscape where consumer trust is increasingly fragile, the insights you generate help ground regulation in lived realities. They help us see where confidence is being built and where it’s being eroded.

That kind of insight is critical to our work at BCFSA. We view effective regulation not as an end in itself, but as a tool for reinforcing confidence in the financial services sector. And today, that confidence is under pressure.

Consumers are challenged to understand what’s covered, what isn’t, and what to expect if they need to make a claim. Products that appear simple on the surface – creditor insurance, travel insurance – can carry exclusions or deductibles that only become clear at the worst possible time. And when that happens, public confidence suffers.

Let me ground this in something human.

Many of us in this room travel often, for work or for pleasure. I myself was on a plane this morning coming from Vancouver to speak with you all.

We’ve stood in an airport queue, boarding pass in hand, when something goes sideways. A cancelled flight. A lost bag. A missed connection. And we’ve felt that flicker of frustration, even panic, before remembering: I’ve got insurance. I’m covered.

Now imagine that same moment – not with confidence, but with doubt. A traveller – perhaps a student, a caregiver, someone visiting family overseas – has spent hard-earned money on a policy they hoped they wouldn’t need. And now, in a moment of stress, they learn that a key exclusion applies. Or the deductible is higher than expected. Or the claim process is unclear.

That cold, sinking feeling – the sense that the safety net wasn’t really there – is what we must design against.

And if I’m honest, it’s also what drives me to do this work. That moment – that feeling – sticks with people. It erodes trust not just in a product, but in a system. And when it happens, it doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens to someone who, like all of us, is part of a community – part of this country. Someone who’s counting on us to get it right.

Because ultimately, we all rely on each other. In times of vulnerability, in times of uncertainty, we look to the systems we’ve built, and to the people behind them, to do their part.

So if we can prevent even one of those moments – by making policies clearer, complaints more accessible, or oversight stronger – we’ve done something that matters. Not just for a customer or a claimant, but for a fellow Canadian.

Because for someone with means, that cold moment might be an inconvenience. But for someone closer to the margins, it can be a real financial blow – and a lasting loss of trust.

And while realizing you’re not covered is unsettling, not being able to seek coverage in the first place can be just as concerning. Availability itself is becoming a pressure point. In some segments, insurance is harder to access or afford due to rising costs, tighter underwriting, or broader uncertainty in our climate and economy.

These aren’t abstract trends. They show up in the lives of people trying to protect what matters most. And when protection starts to slip out of reach, the result isn’t just unmet need – it’s diminished trust in the very systems meant to support us.

We’re seeing more and more of these risks take shape. Not just in isolated moments, but in structural ways. Across segments, insurance is becoming harder to access or afford. Sometimes it’s price. Sometimes it’s underwriting. Sometimes it’s a lack of availability. And sometimes it’s the growing uncertainty in our climate and economy.

But whatever the cause, the impact is the same: people are being left exposed. And that should concern all of us – because a system that doesn’t reach everyone doesn’t serve everyone as well as it could.

Add to that the fragmented regulatory environment you operate in. We understand the burden of managing compliance across more than 30 regulators nationwide. We don’t dismiss that. In fact, where possible, we see harmonization as important to better outcomes for both consumers and industry. It’s why we’ve designed our Extraprovincial Information Security Incident Reporting Guideline to be pragmatic, accepting templates from OSFI to avoid duplication.

We also recognize that distribution models are changing, often involving intermediaries, MGAs, or digital platforms. While these models can expand access, and allow for specialization, they also create oversight complexity and increase third-party risks. We’ve appreciated recent conversations with CAFII, THIA, and CLHIA on the importance of strong insurer oversight of third-party activity, particularly as it related to the fair treatment of consumers across the entire chain. We share the view that insurer responsibility doesn’t end at the point of delegation.

And as part of B.C.’s broader modernization efforts, we’re preparing for the implementation of a restricted licensing regime, overseen by the Insurance Council. While its exact scope is still to be determined, it underscores our commitment to appropriate oversight – regardless of channel or sales model.

Let me close with this.

We know that meaningful progress – on fairness, clarity, access – doesn’t come from regulation alone. It comes from shared responsibility.

CAFII and its members are uniquely positioned to lead:

• To ensure consumers understand what they’re buying
• To strengthen oversight of third-party distributors
• And to help shape a market where insurance is not only accessible, but trusted

So my call to action is this: let’s keep working together to close the gap between coverage promised and coverage experienced. Let’s ensure that no traveller, no borrower, no consumer in this country feels that cold shock of realizing their protection isn’t what they thought it was.

Because if we get this right – together – we won’t just strengthen insurance in British Columbia. We’ll strengthen the trust Canadians place in it.

Thank you again for the invitation to be here. I look forward to the dialogue ahead.