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55. (a) An insurer or insurance agent will not give a misleading description of an insurance transaction proposed to a particular customer and will not include a misleading description in a publication.
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Prohibition of Misleading Description |
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(b) For this purpose, “misleading description" means any oral, written or printed description likely to mislead as to any matter material to a transaction. Without prejudice to the generality of the above, the following will be regarded as matters material to a transaction:
(1) the name of the insurer for the agent, seniority, its reputation and financial position and the extent of his business;
(2) the nature of the insurance transaction, the scope of the insurance coverage, its exclusions and its preconditions;
(3) the length of the period of insurance and the ways in which the insured person or the insurer may terminate it;
(4) the insurance premium and other payments due from the insured person, including the maximum premium licenseted under law and the rate of interest per annum on the credit granted for their payment;
(5) the premium, as compared with the ordinary or normal premium or those formerly charged. in respect of the insurer concerned or other insurers;
(6) the conformity of the conditions of the policy with conditions prescribed or approved under law or the conditions of a specific policy example
(7) an opinion given by any person in respect of the transaction or the insurer.
(c) It will be a good defence for an insurance agent that in giving a misleading description he relied on a written description supplied by an insurer and that he did not know and could not have known that it was misleading.
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56. Where any advertising by an insurer or insurance agent contains a misleading description, the person in whose name the advertising is published and the person who brought the material for publication and thereby caused it to be published will be deemed to mislead, and so will the publisher, editor or printer or the person who actually decided upon the publication if he knew that the advertising was misleading or if it is misleading on the face of it.
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Responsibility for Misleading Publication |
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57.(a) An insurer or insurance agent will not condition upon the contracting of insurance in a particular branch conditional in contracting of insurance in another branch or upon the purchase of another service or any commodity from him or from another person named by him unless a reasonable business link exists between the requested insurance and the conditioned service/insurance.
(b) Without derogating from other modes of proving the reasonableness of a link as aforesaid, an insurer may notify the Commissioner of a business policy laid down by him regarding conditioning the issuing of insurance on a condition as referred to in subsection (a); and if the Commissioner, in consultation with the Committee. approves the said business, the link between the requested insurance and the fulfillment of the condition will be regarded as reasonable if it arises out of that business policy.
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Conditional insurance |
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58.(a) An insurer or insurance agent will do nothing by either an act or an omission, in writing, by speech or in any other manner, which involves taking advantage of an insured person's distress, mental or physical weakness, ignorance. lack of knowledge of a language or inexperience, or the exertion of undue influence upon him. in order to effect an insurance transaction on unreasonable terms or to receive a consideration exceeding the acceptable consideration.
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Prohibition of Infliction of Harm Under Special Circumstances |
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59.(a) An insurance agreement made through an insurance agent who approached the insured at the insured’s residence or place of employment without having been invited by him, may be canceled by the insured within three business days from the day on which it was made.
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Transaction in the insureds Place of Residence or Employment |
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(b) Where an insurance agreement is canceled under subsection (a), the insurer will return to the insured what he has received under the agreement.
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(c) An insurance agent who approached the insured as specified in subsection (a) will explain to him his rights under this section.
The Minister of Finance may prescribe particulars to be included in the explanation and the manner in which it should be given.
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59A. The provisions of Section 54 of the Provident Funds Control Law will apply, mutatis mutandi, to a claim on behalf of an insurer for damages caused to assets managed by the insurer for the purposes of covering yield dependant undertakings or for damages caused in insureds in yield dependant insurances.
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A claim on behalf of an insurer (Added 2005) |
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60. (a) The Commissioner will investigate a complaint which he deems to have some substance made by a member of the public, about an act of an insurer or insurance agent in a matter of insurance; in the matter of complaints concerning discrimination due to handicaps in accordance with Chapter 5A of the Equal Rights of Handicapped Persons - 1998 and in other matters concerning their clients, the provisions of Article 8 of the said Chapter will also apply.
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Investigation of Public Complaints(Amended 2006 (twice)) |
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(b) The Commissioner will not, save for special reasons which will be recorded, investigate a complaint in a matter which a court or arbitrator has begun to hear or has decided; however, he may investigate a complaint in a matter in which an action has been filed with a court or arbitrator but has not yet begun to be heard.
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61.(a) A complaint will be investigated in such manner as the Commissioner sees fit; he will not be bound by rules of procedure or rules of evidence.
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Ways of Investigation |
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(b) The Commissioner will bring the complaint to the attention of the person complained against and will give him a suitable opportunity to answer it.
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62.(a) Where the Commissioner finds that the complaint is justified, he will give notice to such effect to the complainant and the person complained against. The Commissioner may set out the gist of his findings in his answer and may direct that the person complained against will correct a defect brought to light by the investigation, either in respect of the case to which the complaint relates or generally, in such manner and within such time as he will direct.
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Consequences of Investigation |
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(b) Where the Commissioner finds that the complaint is not justified nor does it deserve investigation, he will give notice to such effect to the complainant and the person complained against and may set out the gist of his findings in his answer.
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(c) Where the investigation gives rise to a suspicion that a criminal offence has been committed, the Commissioner will bring the matter to the attention of the Attorney-General.
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