On 7 September 2010 the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010 was approved by the NZ Parliament and received the Royal Assent. It embodies a wide range of legislative reforms that are well overdue and are overwhelmingly supported by industry members. Under s. 219 and 220 of the Act it is an offence for a company to use in its name any of the following words, unless the company is legitimately engaged in lawful insurance transactions, those words being “insurance”, “assurance”, “underwriter”, and “reinsurance” or words with identical meanings.

So where does this leave privately owned so-called ‘insurance’ companies such as the obscure entity Cheyenne Insurance Company (NZ) Ltd that are not lawfully entitled to engage in any insurance transactions, and which appear to have been largely operating in property development transactions in New Zealand, largely based in Central Otago?

Cheyenne Insurance, directed by American businessman John M Carr CPA (see photo – http://www.carr.co.nz/images/jmc.jpg) since 24 May 1991 and owned by him since 26 July 1990, has never deposited the required security (minimum $500,000) with the NZ Public Trust that would entitle it to lawfully engage in insurance transactions in New Zealand under the Insurance Companies’ Deposits Act 1953. Then what exactly is it doing in New Zealand? [Read more…]