ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I
PRELIMINARY

SECTION

PART II
APPOINTMENT OF REGISTRAR, DEPUTY REGISTRAR AND ASSISTANT REGISTRAR
AND PROVISIONS GOVERNING REGISTRATION, CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION
AND THE CARRYING ON OF INSURANCE BUSINESS BY INSURERS (OTHER THAN MEMBERS OF ASSOCIATIONS OF UNDERWRITERS)

PART III
PROVISIONS GOVERNING REGISTRATION, CANCELLATION
OF REGISTRATION AND THE CARRYING ON OF INSURANCE BUSINESS BY
MEMBERS OF ASSOCIATIONS OF UNDERWRITERS

PART IV
REGISTRATION AND CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION OF INSURANCE AGENTS
AND OF INSURANCE BROKERS, AND INSURANCE SALESMEN

PART V
GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES

PART VI
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

CHAPTER 347

INSURANCE

[Assent 27th February, 1969]
[Commencement 1st June, 1970]

"actuary" means a person qualified as an actuary by examination of the Institute of Actuaries in England or the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland or the Society of Actuaries in the United States of America or the Society of Actuaries in Canada or an actuary possessing such other qualifications as the Minister may recognise;

"Assistant Registrar" means the Assistant Registrar appointed under section 4;

"association of underwriters" means an association of individual underwriters, organised according to the system known as Lloyd's whereby every underwriting member of a syndicate becomes liable for a separate part of the sum secured by each policy subscribed to by that syndicate, limited or proportionate to the whole sum thereby secured;

"auditor" means a person who has qualified by examination of one of the Institutes of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Canadian Provinces, the Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants, the Association of Certified Public Accountants, or an auditor possessing such other qualifications as the Minister may recognise;

"Court" means the Supreme Court;

"Deputy Registrar" means the Deputy Registrar appointed under section 4;

"director" means any person occupying the position of director of a body corporate by whatever name called;

"external insurer" means an insurer who is not a local insurer;

"financial year", in relation to an insurer, means each period not exceeding fifty-three weeks at the end of which the balance of the accounts of insurer is struck;

"Inspector" means a person appointed as such under the provisions of section 40;

"insurance agent" means a person who with the authority of an insurer acts on his behalf in the initiation of insurance business, the receipt of proposals, the issue of policies or the collection of premiums;

"insurance broker" means a person who arranges insurance business with insurers on behalf of prospective policy-holders or as a policy-holder's representative;

"insurance business" means the soliciting, effecting or carrying out of contracts of insurance as an insurer and includes re-insurance business;

"insurance salesman" means an individual employed by an insurer or agent to solicit applications for insurance or negotiate insurance business on behalf of an insurer or an agent, but shall not include a bona fide salaried employee of a registered insurer, insurance agent or broker who is employed at its principal office or branch thereof;

"insurer" means a person effecting and carrying on insurance business and, except where otherwise stated, includes each member of an association of underwriters;

"life assurance business" means insurance of human lives and insurance appertaining thereto or connected therewith and includes the granting of annuities, endorsement benefits, sinking fund benefits and benefits in the event of death or disability by accident or sickness, provided that such insurance against disability by accident or sickness is included as an additional benefit in a life policy;

"life assurance policy" means an ordinary life assurance policy, an industrial life assurance policy or a sinking fund or bond investment policy;

"life assurer" means an insurer carrying on life assurance business;

"local insurer" means an insurer incorporated or constituted in and having its head office in The Bahamas;

"local policy" means a policy issued by a registered insurer on property, lives or other risks located in The Bahamas;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for Insurance (excluding National Insurance);

"mutual company" means a company whose capital is owned by the policy-holders of that company;

"officer", in relation to a body corporate, includes a director, manager or secretary of that body, or any person having or exercising powers or duties substantially similar to any of those officers;

"owner", in relation to a policy, means a person who is entitled to claim any benefit provided for in the policy;

"policy" means any written contract of insurance whether contained in one or more documents;

"Part" means a Part of this Act;

"principal office" means the office notified to the Registrar in accordance with the provisions of section 13;

"principal representative" means the representative notified to the Registrar in accordance with the provisions of section 13;

"Registrar" means the Registrar appointed under section 4 and includes the Deputy Registrar when exercising any powers under this Act in accordance with the directions of the Registrar;

"registered insurance agent" means a person registered as such under Part IV and thereby qualified to act as an agent for a registered insurer;

"registered insurance broker" means a person registered as such under Part IV;

"registered insurer" means an insurer registered under Part II or Part III;

"section" means a section of this Act;

"sinking fund policy" means a policy whereby one party to the contract assumes the obligation to pay, after the expiration of a certain period or during a specified period, a certain sum or certain sums of money to a particular person in return for the payment from time to time of certain sums of money by the other part to the contract;

"regulations" means regulations made under this Act.

(2) Any person doing insurance business in The Bahamas at the date of commencement of this Act shall be deemed to be registered under this Act as an insurer for a period of six months from such date:

Provided that any person or persons doing insurance business shall give notice of application to be a registered insurer, within two months of the date of the commencement of this Act and shall provide the necessary preliminary documents and particulars required under the provisions of this Act together with any fee which may be prescribed within four months of such date.

(3) Any person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to the penalty specified in section 53.

(4) For the purposes of this Part, any body corporate or incorporate which maintains a business office in The Bahamas shall be deemed to issue from within The Bahamas any policy of insurance issued in its name, on property, lives or other risks located in The Bahamas whether or not such policy of insurance is or has been issued in The Bahamas.

(2) Any registered insurer doing a life assurance business shall have a paid up share capital, or equivalent surplus if a mutual company, of three hundred thousand dollars.

(3) Any registered insurer doing insurance business, other than life assurance business, shall have assets that exceed all liabilities by the amount of one hundred and forty thousand dollars in the case of an insurer who was not doing insurance business at the date of the commencement of this Act, or in the case of any other insurer by the amount specified in the following table:

TABLE

(4) The Minister may by notice in the Gazette modify the requirements of this section where it appears to him to be necessary to do so in order to create a market for insurance coverage needed in the public interest.

(5) The Minister may permit a local insurer doing insurance business in The Bahamas at the date of the commencement of this Act to be registered despite its inability to comply with this section, provided that the insurer presents a satisfactory plan to the Minister for increasing the capital or surplus to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars in not more than five years.

(2) Whenever the Minister considers it to be in the public interest, he may refuse to register an insurer, and any such decision shall be final.

(3) The Minister may refuse the registration of a local insurer if, in his opinion, any officer of the insurer is not a fit and proper person to be associated with insurance companies.

Provided that whenever an application is refused under the provisions of subsection (2) of section 8 no further reason for refusal shall be required to be stated than that the registration of the applicant is not considered to be in the public interest.

(2) The Minister may require that a registered local insurer shall not make investments of a specified class and may in that case require such insurer to realise investments of that class within a specified period.

(3) The Registrar shall notify the registered insurer in writing of any decision made under the provisions of subsections (1) or (2) of this section and shall state the reasons for the decision.

(4) A registered insurer shall comply with the terms of any prohibition or requirement notified to him in accordance with the provisions of this section.

(2) The cancellation shall be effective fifteen days after the Registrar has given written notice to the insurer of the intention to cancel the registration and the reasons therefor, subject to the right of the insurer to appeal to the court under section 54 at any time within fifteen days from the date of such notification:

Provided that pending determination of the appeal, the insurer shall not write any new insurance business.

(2) A registered insurer shall notify the Registrar in writing of the situation of his principal office and the name of his principal representative.

(3) If a registered insurer changes the situation of his principal office or appoints a new principal representative, he shall, forthwith, and in any case within twenty-one days of the change, give notice thereof to the Registrar in writing.

(2) All receipts of a life assurer in respect of his life assurance business shall be carried to and from part of his life assurance fund.

(3) Payments from the life assurance fund of a registered insurer shall not be made directly or indirectly for any purpose other than those of his life assurance business, except insofar as such payments can be made out of any surplus disclosed on an actuarial valuation and certified by the actuary to be distributable otherwise than to policy-holders.

(4) Nothing in this section contained shall be deemed to require the investments of any life assurance fund to be kept separate from the investments of any other fund.

(2) In the winding up of a life assurer the value of the liabilities and assets of his life assurance fund shall be ascertained separately from the value of any other liabilities or assets and no assets of the life assurance fund shall be applied to the discharge of any liabilities other than those towards life policy-holders except insofar as those assets exceed those liabilities.

(2) The auditor of a registered insurer shall satisfy himself that the accounts of the insurer have been properly prepared in accordance with the books and records of the insurer.

(3) The auditor of a registered insurer shall include in his certificate such particulars as may be prescribed by regulations.

and shall at the time of furnishing the balance sheet and accounts to the Registrar as required by paragraph (a) of this subsection cause a summary thereof in a form previously approved by the Registrar to be published in the Gazette.

(2) A registered insurer shall furnish to the Registrar a copy of any report on the affairs of the insurer submitted to the policy-owners or shareholders of the insurer in respect of the financial year to which the balance sheet relates.

(3) A registered insurer liable under a life assurance policy shall, at the request of the owner, furnish him free of charge with a copy of the relevant revenue account, profit and loss account and balance sheet prepared by the insurer in terms of subsection (1) of this section in respect of his last preceding financial year, and shall make available, at the request of the policy-owner, for inspection at the insurer's principal office a copy of the last actuarial report.

Provided that the Minister may require a life assurer to cause such an investigation to be made at any time if he deems it to be in the public interest to do so.

(2) A life assurer shall, whenever his financial position is investigated with a view to a distribution or surplus or in compliance with subsection (1) of this section, prepare and furnish to the Registrar within six months of the date to which his accounts are made up, for the purposes of the investigation, a full report of the actuary by whom the investigation was made or an abstract thereof at the Registrar's option, and a statement of his life assurance business at that date. The actuary shall also provide a statement of the assumption and the methods used in making the valuation.

unless the amalgamation, or, as the case may be, the transfer is sanctioned by the Minister.

(2) The Minister may register as an insurer an association of underwriters but may refuse to register any particular association or syndicate of an association when he considers that such registration is not in the public interest.

(3) An application for registration submitted by an association of underwriters shall be made to the Minister through the Registrar and shall be accompanied by the following documents-

and by such further information as the Minister may require.

(4) Any person, who, being a member of an association of underwriters, issues policies of insurance in or from within The Bahamas when such association is not registered under the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to the penalties specified in section 53.

(2) Every insurer registered under this Part shall appoint and maintain a representative, resident in The Bahamas, duly authorised to accept service of process.

(2) Every applicant for registration as an insurance agent, insurance broker or insurance salesman shall satisfy the Registrar-

(2) The Minister shall direct the Registrar to register an insurance agent, an insurance broker or an insurance salesman who has applied under subsection (1) of this section and is qualified under section 29(2).

(3) The Registrar shall notify the applicant in writing whether the application is accepted or rejected. If it is rejected he shall state the reasons therefor.

(2) The Minister shall direct the Registrar to notify the insurance agent, insurance broker or insurance salesman, as the case may be, that it is proposed to cancel the registration under subsection (1) and shall state the reasons for so doing.

(2) Each registered insurance agent and broker who employs an insurance salesman shall provide the Registrar on demand with full details of the employment of such salesman including a copy of any employment contract.

Provided that any such agent or broker shall not be required to produce to the Registrar any record-

(2) An Inspector appointed under subsection (1) of this section may investigate the affairs of any other body corporate which is or has at any relevant time been the registered insurer's subsidiary or holding company or a subsidiary of its holding company or a holding company of its subsidiary.

(3) It shall be the duty of the registered insurer under investigation and of all past and present officers of the registered insurer and of the related bodies corporate specified in subsection (2) of this section, to produce to the Inspector all books, records and documents relating to the registered insurer or body corporate under investigation which are in their custody or control, and otherwise to give to the Inspector all assistance in connection with the investigation which they are reasonably able to give.

(4) An Inspector may-

(5) The Registrar may recover from the registered insurer or other body corporate whose affairs are investigated under the provisions of this section all expenses properly incurred in connection with the investigation or in connection with the proceedings instituted as a result of the investigation.

(2) The Registrar shall not register an applicant as a local insurer if the name under which the applicant desires to be registered is calculated to suggest, falsely, that such local insurer has a special status in relation to or derived from the Government of The Bahamas or has the official backing of or acts on behalf of the said Government or of any department or official thereof or is recognised in The Bahamas as a national or central insurer.

(3) The Registrar shall not register an applicant as an insurance broker if the name under which the applicant desires to be registered is likely to suggest that the applicant is an insurer.

(4) The Registrar shall not register an insurance agent if the name under which he desires to be registered is likely to suggest that he is an insurer or an insurance broker.

(5) The Registrar may refuse to register an applicant under a name which is likely to mislead policy-holders.

(6) A registered insurer, insurance broker or insurance agent shall not change the name under which he is registered without the prior permission of the Registrar.

(2) A policy other than a life assurance policy may be cancelled at any time at the request of the insured named therein, and the insurer shall, upon the surrendering of the policy, refund the excess of any premiums paid over and above the customary short-rate premium for the period when the policy has been in force.

(3) A policy other than a life assurance policy may be cancelled at any time by an insurer after giving to the insured named therein at least thirty days notice in writing of the proposed cancellation by personal service or by registered post and upon a refund to the insured of the excess of paid premium over and above the pro rata premium for the time the policy has been in force, which repayment shall accompany the notice.

(4) A life assurance policy may be cancelled by the insurer in the event of non-payment of any renewal premiums due but only after notice in writing specifying the default and the intention of the insurer to cancel the policy has been given to the insured by personal service or by registered post:

Provided that a life assurance policy shall not be cancelled by reason only of the non-payment of a premium unless at least twenty-eight days have elapsed since the premium became due.

(5) Any policy of insurance may be cancelled by the mutual consent in writing of the insurer and the insured made prior to the date of intended cancellation.

Provided that loans may be so made within the surrender value of a life policy issued by the insurer to such person.

(2) If the principal office of a person carrying on insurance business cannot reasonably be found any notice served under this Act or process in any legal proceedings may be served by leaving the same at the office of the Registrar.

(3) Service of process upon the Registrar, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall be deemed to be service upon the insurer.

(2) Anyone who as agent or broker places insurance on property, lives or other risks within The Bahamas with an unregistered insurer, shall incur personal liability on the policy as if he was the insurer.

(3) For the purposes of this section, any registered agent who places insurance with a member of a registered association of underwriters shall be considered as placing such insurance with a registered insurer.

(2) Where any offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer or servant of the body corporate, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

that he has acquired in the course of his duties or in the exercise of the Registrar's functions under this or any other law, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to a disclosure-

(3) Subject to subsection (6), the Registrar may disclose to an overseas regulatory authority information necessary to enable that authority to exercise regulatory functions including the conduct of civil or administrative investigations and proceedings to enforce laws, regulations and rules administered by that authority.

(4) In deciding whether or not to exercise his power under subsection (3), the Registrar may take into account-

(5) The Registrar may decline to exercise his powers under subsection (3) unless the overseas regulatory authority undertakes to make such contribution towards the cost of the exercise as the Registrar considers appropriate.

(6) Nothing in subsection (3) authorises a disclosure by the Registrar unless-

(7) Where in the opinion of the Registrar it appears necessary in relation to any request for assistance received from an overseas regulatory authority to invoke the jurisdiction of a Stipendiary and Circuit Magistrate in obtaining information requested by the overseas regulatory authority, the Registrar shall immediately notify the Attorney-General with particulars of the request, and shall send him copies of all documents relating to the request, and the Attorney-General shall be entitled, in a manner analogous to amicus curiae, to appear or take part in any proceedings in The Bahamas, or in any appeal from such proceedings, arising directly or indirectly from any such request.

(8) The Registrar may provide information that he has acquired in the course of his duties or in the exercise of his functions under this or any other law to any other regulatory authority in The Bahamas where he considers such information may be relevant to the functions of such other regulatory authority.

(9) In this section "overseas regulatory authority" means an authority which, in a country or territory outside The Bahamas exercises functions corresponding to any functions of the Registrar.