Insurance Order, 2006

This Order may be cited as the Insurance Order, 2006 and shall commence on a date to be appointed by the Minister, with the approval of His

The Minister may appoint different dates for the commencement of different provisions of this Order or for different purposes of the same provision.

The long title of this Order is "An Order to provide for the regulation of insurance business in Brunei Darussalam and for other purposes relating thereto or connected with insurance".

In this Order -

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"accounting period", in relation to any insurer, means the period for which the insurer makes up the accounts of the insurance business carried on by him in Brunei Darussalam; but, unless in any particular case the Authority allows those accounts to be made up for a longer or shorter period, every accounting period for which those accounts have not been made up before the commencement of this Order shall be a period of 12 months beginning from the commencement of that business or from the end of the preceding accounting period, and

"initial accounting period", in relation to any existing insurer, means the accounting period beginning with 1st. January, 2006, or, if the insurer has no such accounting period, the first accounting period beginning thereafter.

"actuaryn means a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in England, a

Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland, a Fellow of the Society

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM GOVERNMENT GAZETTE of Actuaries in America or a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of

Actuaries, the Australian Institute of Actuaries/ or any person holding an equivalent qualification and approved in writing by the Authority as an actuary for the purposes of this Order;

"adjuster" means any person who for compensation, feel commission or salary investigates and negotiates settlement of claims arising under insurance contracts, solely on behalf of either the insurer or the insured;

"annuity" means a right to a series of periodical payments at intervals of one year or less under a contract with a life insurer;

"associate undertaking" shall be construed in accordance with Part I of the First Schedule;

"Authority" means such person as is appointed by His Majesty the

Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan under subsection 11) of section 4 to be the

Authority for the purposes of this Order;

"commission" means an amount or a benefit in kind, whether expressed as a percentage of premium or not, agreed to be paid by an insurer to an insurance broker or insurance intermediary including introducer 1S fees;

"compant' means a company incorporated or registered under the

Companies Act !Chapter 39);

"controller" shall be construed in accordance with Part II of the First

Schedule;

"existing" means existing immediately before the commencement of this Order;

"financial year", in relation to a registered insurer, means the period for which the registered insurer makes up the accounts of its business which shall be a period of 12 calendar months, calculated from the commencement of the business or from the end of the immediately preceding financial year as the case may bel or such longer or shorter period as the Authority in relation to al particular registered insurer/

may approve on a particular occasion;

"insurance agent" means a person who does all or any of the following-

{a} solicits or obtains a proposal for insurance on behalf of an insurer;

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{b) offers or assumes to act on behalf of an insurer in negotiating a policy;

{c) does any act on behalf of an insurer in relation to the issuance, renewal or continuance of a policy;

"insurance broker" means any company who, for compensation as an independent contractor, in any manner solicits, negotiates or procures insurance or the renewal or continuance thereof on behalf of an insured other than himself;

"insurance business" includes the business of effecting and carrying out contracts

{a} protecting persons against loss or liability to loss in respect of risks to which such persons may be exposed; or

{b) to pay a sum of money or render money and includes reinsurance business;

"insurance intermediary" means a person who, as an agent for one or more insurers or as an agent for insured or intending insured, arranges contracts of insurance;

"Minister 11 means the Minister of Finance;

"net premium income", in relation to a financial year, means the premiums receivable under contracts of insurance or reinsurance after deducting any premiums payable for reinsurance arranged in respect of such contracts or insurance or reinsurance;

"parent undertaking" shall be construed in accordance with Part II of the First Schedule;

"premium receipt book" includes any book or document held by the policy owner in which acknowledgements of receipts of premiums payable in respect of the policy are entered;

"principal officer"

means a person, by whatever designation called, appointed by an insurer and charged with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the insurer;

"registered insurer" means an insurer which has been registered by the

Authority under this Order;

"reinsurer,s deposit" means an amount deposited with or retained by an insurer by way of security for the performance by the reinsurer of

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM GOVERNMENT GAZETTE contracts reinsuring liabilities of the insurer, and includes any similar amount retained by a branch of the insurer's business in

Brunei Darussalam against a branch outside Brunei Darussalam (the head office of a business being for this purpose treated as a branch);

"statutory balance-sheet" and "statutory valuation" mean respectively a balance-sheet lodged with the Authority in order to comply with subsection (1) of section 59, and a valuation of which the results are shown in a valuation balance-sheet lodged with him on an actuarial investigation made in order to comply with subsection (1) of section 60. Any reference to the last statutory balance-sheet or to the last statutory valuation shall be construed as referring to that last prepared or made and not superseded by the arrival of the date as at which another is to be prepared or made. Any reference to there being shown in a statutory balance-sheet or on a statutory valuation a surplus of assets over liabilities of an insurance fund shall be construed accordingly by reference to the prescribed form of balance-sheet or valuation balance-sheet and to the rules to be followed under this Order and the regulations in preparing it;

"subsidiary undertaking" (and references to a subsidiary) shall be construed in accordance with Part III of the First Schedule;

"undertaking" shall be construed in accordance with Part III of the First

Schedule;

"written premiums" means gross premiums during the accounting period in respect of Brunei Darussalam policies issued, and reinsurapces accepted which are entered in the register, reduced by returnJpremiums and premiums in respect of reinsurances on Brunei

Darussalam policies ceded during the accounting period to an insurer registered under this Order, and relates only to general business.

References in this Order to the date of commencement of this Order are to the date of commencement of the main substantive provisions of this Order.

( 1)

For the purposes of this Order, insurance business shall be divided into 2 classes-

{a}

life business, which in addition to all insurance business concerned with life policies shall include, in the case of any insurer, any type of insurance business carried on as incidental only to the insurer's other life business; and 1000

{b) general business, that is to say, all insurance business which is not life business.

For the purposes of this Order, the reinsurance of liabilities under insurance policies shall be treated as insurance business of the class and type to which the policies would have belonged if they had been issued by the reinsurer.

Notwithstanding anything in subsections (1) and (2), if the Authority is satisfied that any part of an insurer's business which belongs to a particular class or type of insurance business ought in the insurer's case to be treated as belonging to another class or type, the Authority may direct that it shall be so treated for the purposes of this Order.

For the purposes of this Order, references to carrying on insurance business include carrying it on through an agent, or as agent; but 11insurer" shall not include an insurance agent as such nor, in the case of a person who is both insurer and insurance agent, have references to business done as insurance agent.

For the purposes of this Order, ninsurer", means a person who carries on insurance business as an insurer; and references to carrying on insurance business, or any class of insurance business, in Brunei Darussalam mean the receipt of proposals for, or issuing of, policies in Brunei Darussalam or the collection or receipt in Brunei Darussalam of premiums on insurance policies.

The operation, otherwise than for profit, of a scheme or arrangement relating to service in particular offices or employments, and having for its object or one of its objects to make provision in respect of persons serving therein against future retirement or partial retirement, or against future termination of s 'l\fo1

The definitions set out in the Second Schedule shall have effect for the construction of references in this Order to policies of insurance, policy owners and policy moneys.