Cap. 487 Art. 37Appointment, registration and enrolment of tied insurance intermediaries.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, every authorised undertaking desirous of appointing a person to act on its behalf as a tied insurance intermediary shall, under this article, appoint and register in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of the authorised undertaking and enrol with the competent authority in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries List, any one or more persons to act on its behalf as tied insurance intermediaries and to carry out tied insurance intermediaries activities in the class or classes of long term business or the group or groups of classes of general business specified in their respective appointments and, where a person is not an individual, such person must itself have an individual who satisfies the requirements of article 35(1): Provided that, an undertaking is prohibited from appointing and registering in its Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register a person which is -

(a) a person registered in the Agents Register, Managers Register or Brokers Register under article 13;

(b) a person enrolled in the Agents List, Managers List or Brokers List under that article;

(bb) a person enrolled in the Ancillary Insurance Intermediaries List under article 43E;

(c) an undertaking authorised under the Insurance

Business Act to carry on business of insurance: Provided further that an undertaking is prohibited from appointing any person acting on its behalf as a tied insurance intermediary to carry out any tied insurance intermediaries activities within any class or group of classes of business of insurance as the competent authority may, from time to time, by Insurance Distribution Rules made for the purposes of this article determine to be a class or group of classes of business within which no tied insurance intermediaries activities shall be carried out.

(1A) Every authorised undertaking desirous of appointing, registering and enrolling a person to act on his or its behalf as a tied insurance intermediary shall disclose the following information to the competent authority:

(a) where the tied insurance intermediary is a person which is not an individual:

(i) the identity of the shareholders, direct or indirect, whether natural or legal persons, who will have qualifying holdings in the tied insurance intermediary and the amounts of those holdings; and

(ii) the identity of persons who have close links with the tied insurance intermediary; and exist between the tied insurance intermediary and any other person, the competent authority shall only grant enrolment if it considers that such holdings or close links do not prevent it from effectively exercising its supervisory functions.

(2) Where an authorised undertaking appoints and registers in its Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register a person which is not an individual, and that person carries out tied insurance intermediaries activities from any one or more places of business, that person shall ascertain that tied insurance intermediaries activities so carried out by it from each such place of business are carried out only by an individual who satisfies the requirements of article 35(1).

(3) Subject to sub-articles (4) and (5), any person, other than a person mentioned in the first proviso to sub-article (1), may seek and obtain under this article appointment and registration in a Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of an authorised undertaking to carry out tied insurance intermediaries activities on behalf of such undertaking.

(4) Where a person desires to seek appointment and registration in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of more than one undertaking, authorised to carry on long term business, and where any class of long term business carried on by the undertakings concerned is of the same kind, such person shall, in respect of that class of business, seek and obtain appointment and registration to carry out tied insurance intermediaries activities relating to that kind of class of business only in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of one of the undertakings concerned.

(5) Where a person desires to seek appointment and registration in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of more than one undertaking authorised to carry on general business, and where any class, or any group of classes, of general business carried on by the undertakings concerned is of the same kind, such person shall, in respect of that class, or that group of classes of business, seek and obtain appointment and registration to carry out tied insurance intermediaries activities relating to that class, or that group of classes of business only in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of one of the undertakings concerned.

(6) No person who is an employee of an authorised undertaking shall, solely by virtue of his employment by the undertaking, require registration in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of the undertaking under this article.

(6A) The competent authority shall determine an application for enrolment under this article within three months of the submission of a properly completed application form together with the requisite documentation required to be submitted under this Act the refusal: Provided that, the competent authority may take such measures as it may deem necessary for the protection of the interest of the public.

(7) On granting an application for enrolment under this article, the competent authority shall issue to the applicant concerned a certificate of enrolment evidencing enrolment of the person registered in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries Company Register of the applicant in the Tied Insurance Intermediaries List.

(8) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the competent authority may subject enrolment made under this article to such conditions as it may from time to time deem fit to impose.

(8A) The validity of the enrolment under this article shall be subject to a regular review by the competent authority.

(9) An authorised undertaking shall at all times be responsible for any act or omission of its registered tied insurance intermediaries provided that such act or omission is an act or omission pertaining to a contract of insurance issued by the undertaking or offered on its behalf through the services of such tied insurance intermediaries. For the purposes of this sub-article any reference to registered tied insurance intermediaries shall include a reference to past as well as present registered tied insurance intermediaries.