Insurers and Reinsurers

Eligibility

IBC membership is open to federally and provincially licensed insurers and reinsurers in Canada. To be eligible, insurers must write general insurance business lines (auto, home and/or business insurance).

IBC members have access to the following:

  • Participation on IBC's regional and standing committees, advisory groups and Board of Directors, giving members the ability to shape IBC's policy, advocacy and strategic priorities that centre on industry needs

  • Information support delivered by Member Services

  • Subscription to industry publications, including IBC Industry News, a regular newsletter to keep members informed on IBC's activities plus emerging insurance issues across the country; and Breaking News, timely bulletins on significant matters affecting the industry, IBC and our strategic priorities.

  • IBC's member site to view documents, such as:

    • IBC Advisory Policy Wordings: Habitational, commercial property, general property, and commercial general liability series wordings offer industry benchmarks and detailed information on industry forms and coverages

    • Status updates: Stay informed on emerging trends and major catastrophes

    • Legal Bulletins: Available in English and French, these outline industry-affecting legislative changes on topics such as auto insurance, tort reforms, taxation and privacy, as well as court decisions that have a significant effect on various aspects of the industry

    • Underwriting Bulletins: Information on changes to IBC Advisory Policy Wording (forms)

    • Claims Bulletins: Analysis on claims-related issues, cases and events affecting the industry

    • Position papers, submissions and research reports: These publications detail the facts behind industry issues.

    • Newsletters: These include the IBC Quarterly, Tax Newsletter and Atlantic Insurance Exchange.

Additional services

As an IBC member, you can also subscribe to our Vehicle Information Services (VIS). VIS collects and analyzes data related to private passenger vehicles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles.

Through relationships with vehicle manufacturers, VIS has the most up-to-date database of vehicle characteristics and safety features from 1981 to the latest models. This information is available through various vehicle identification number (VIN)link products and used with insurance claim and premium data to produce the Canadian Loss Experience Automobile Rating (CLEAR) rate group information.

As a VIS subscriber, you also have access to:

  • The VIS portal, which contains vehicle bulletins, vehicle descriptions, VINlink products and more

  • The vehicle inquiries system by VINs, which is used to inquire about vehicles that may not be in IBC's database or vehicles not sold in Canada

  • CLEAR rate groups assigned based on insurance claims, which insurers can use to assess the likelihood that a specific vehicle will be involved in a claim and the probable cost of that claim

  • Vehicle descriptions, which include a list of all vehicle makes, models and model years linking to vehicle characteristics for all private passenger vehicles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles

  • Distribution of exposures by vehicle code or rate group

  • Eligibility to subscribe to vehicle information products and services (at an additional cost), including the:

    • VINlink dataset, a comprehensive vehicle dataset, available in text file format, that companies can implement in their own systems to validate VINs and identify the correct vehicle to assess the proper risk

    • VINlink decoder, an application available online or as a web service that links VINs to information on all private passenger vehicles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles including vehicle codes and rate groups

Automated web services, which allows you to download VINlink product files and integrate the VINlink decoder into other systems.