November 7, 2011: Remarks by Superintendent Julie Dickson, OSFI, to the 2011 Life Insurance Invitational Forum at Cambridge, Ontario
These are challenging times. I know many of you are working long, difficult hours. People are a bit on edge. The same is true at OSFI. At a meeting a few weeks ago, someone captured the tense mood by recalling a quote from Robin Williams, who said: �The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.’ She’s got a baseball bat and she’s yelling, ‘You want a piece of me?’� I think many can relate to that!
This quote got me thinking about two things: 1) Baseball, which I do not think about very often, and 2) How these are stressful times in the financial industry in general and in the life insurance industry in particular, which I do think about a lot.
Tonight, I will address the challenges of a sustained, low interest rate environment and its effects on long term guarantees, specific regulatory issues and the uncertainty we all face in the current environment. But before I get too serious, let’s keep talking baseball for a moment.
In chatting with OSFI colleagues, some of whom are avid baseball fans, I now fully appreciate the similarities, and more recently the differences, between baseball and the life insurance industry. Let me explain.
Read about the baseball analogy, regulatory issues and uncertainty in the environment here.
About OSFI
OSFI is an independent agency of the Government of Canada. It reports to the Minister of Finance. For more information visit www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca.
