Further to the Banking and Insurance bulletin we circulated in March regarding the draft regulations that were introduced to restrict the types of authorized insurance products that are available through the branches and on-line web pages of deposit-taking financial institutions, the federal government released the final amendments to the regulations on October 12.

As part of the consultation and pre-publication process comments on the draft regulations were received from 19 stakeholders, the majority of which expressed "general support for the amendments" according to the Government.

Only minor modifications were made to the final version of the Regulations and accordingly we direct you to our Banking and Insurance bulletin for a summary of the amendments to the Insurance Business (Banks and Bank Holding Companies) Regulations and the Insurance Business (Authorized Foreign Banks) Regulations.

The new regulations will come into force on March 1, 2012.

The foregoing provides only an overview. Readers are cautioned against making any decisions based on this material alone. Rather, a qualified lawyer should be consulted.

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