All about Canadian insurance. Learn the ins and outs and get the latest news.
Latest News
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CMHC and Genworth Hike Mortgage Insurance Premiums By 15%
– ratesupermarket.ca
At the beginning of April, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) announced that it was raising the premiums on mortgage loan insurance for buyers with less than 10 per cent for a down payment by approximately 15 per cent, effective June 1, 2015.
A few days later, Genworth, an alternative mortgage insurance provider in Canada, followed suit and matched the CMHC’s increased rates. (At press time, Canada Guaranty, the other alternative insurer in Canada, has not adjusted their rates to match Genworth and CMHC.)
Here’s how your insurance premium pricing will change, based on your down payment amount:
Loan-to-Value Ratio
Standard Premium
(Current)
Standard Premium
(Effective June 1st, 2015)
Up to and including 65%
0.60%
0.60%
Up to and including 75%
0.75%
0.75%
Up to and including 80%
1.25%
1.25%
Up to and including 85%
1.80%
1.80%
Up to and including 90%
2.40%
2.40%
Up to and including 95%
3.15%
3.60%
90.01% to 95% Non-
Traditional Down Paymen
3.35%
3…
Ajusto mobile app for drivers raises privacy concerns
– moneysense.ca
TORONTO – A Canadian insurance company has developed a mobile app that purports to evaluate a user’s driving behaviour and offer discounts on their premiums if their skills are up to snuff.But at least one privacy lawyer is urging caution when downloading the Ajusto app developed by Desjardins Insurance.
Desjardins says iPhone and Android users can download Ajusto for free to have it start scoring driving performance.
The company says Ajusto’s score is calculated by monitoring a driver’s speed, smoothness and travel distance, as well as logging what time of day the user is most often on the road.
Privacy lawyer David Young says drivers shouldn’t start using the app before understanding what they may be getting into.
He says users should be very clear on what purpose their personal information will be used for, as well as how Desjardins plans to keep it secure and for how long.
Young adds that Ajusto’s developers could be doing more to make sure customers are well informed when they sign up…
Canada’s largest life insurance company will pay at least $1.2 billion US in a 15-year commercial agreement with DBS Bank, which will use its branch network in Singapore, Hong Kong and two other Asian markets to sell Manulife products.
Higher mortgage insurance premiums could hurt first-time buyers
– moneysense.ca
(Getty Images/Tom Merton)TORONTO – Some realtors and economists say higher mortgage insurance premiums introduced recently by Genworth Canada and CMHC could cause first-time homebuyers to delay their purchases.
“It’s certainly going to bite into first-time, low-equity homebuyer sales,” said Helmut Pastrick, chief economist with Central 1 Credit Union.
“I don’t expect a major impact on housing sales activity as a result of this change, but at the margin, it will slow first-time buyer sales to some extent.”
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. announced last week that insurance premiums for buyers who have a downpayment of 10 per cent or less will go up by 15 per cent starting June 1. Genworth matched the move on Monday with an identical increase.
Canada Guaranty, the third mortgage insurance provider in the country, has yet to announce a boost to its premiums.
Both CMHC and Genworth said they don’t expect the changes to have any significant impacts on housing demand.
But Ron Hollet, a Halifax-based broker with Re/Max Nova, says he expects the changes will force a number of first-time buyers out of the market…
