Reporting Developments Affecting the Insurance and Reinsurance Industries
Earlier this month, Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) signed S.B. 16, mandating the Colorado Insurance Commissioner to adopt rules such that insurance carriers licensed in Colorado participate in the NAIC Climate Risk Disclosure Survey beginning in 2024.
Read MoreWe are happy to provide the 2023 edition of our Excess and Surplus Lines Law Manual. This edition reflects all of the pertinent changes in the surplus lines laws and regulations of the 50 states and U.S. territories during the past year. The website provides you with the ability to click on the states and territories of interest to view the updates, and a PDF of the entire manual.
Read MoreJoin Locke Lord and InsurTechNY for their InsurTech Academy webinar series on legal and regulatory issues impacting the InsurTech industry. Each quarter, we’ll tackle a new important topic, starting with a primer on surplus lines insurance for InsurTechs.
Read MoreOn Thursday April 27, 2023, the Innovation in Technology & Regulation (H) Working Group met to discuss its 2023 Work Plan, the development of a regulator-to-regulator SupTech Forum, a pilot project InsureTech Forum, and to hear a presentation on ChatGPT. The regulators quickly approved the 2023 Work Plan and closed the meeting hearing the presentation on ChatGPT without raising any questions. The substance of the meeting consisted of planning for InsureTech and SupTech Forums.
Read MoreThe NAIC is developing a new Consumer Privacy Protections Model Act (# 674) which will replace the preexisting Insurance Information & Privacy Protection Model Act (# 670) and Privacy of Consumer Financial & Health Information Regulation (# 672). The Working Group exposed its first draft on January 31 for a 60-day public comment period which closes April 3. Yesterday at the NAIC Spring National Meeting, the Working Group adopted a work plan which lays out a detailed schedule across the spring and summer for regulatory only meetings, consultations with industry, and open sessions, including public comment periods and final approval at the Fall National Meeting in December.
Read MoreThe Connecticut General Assembly has proposed a bill that would permit owners of self-storage businesses to sell property insurance to their tenants. Under Senate Bill 1037 (the “Bill”), an owner is required to obtain a self-service storage insurance license in order to sell such insurance and the insurance policy must be issued by an insurer that is authorized to write such lines of business in Connecticut. The Bill would not require tenants of self-storage businesses to buy insurance.
Read MoreOn Wednesday February 22, 2023, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) Accelerated Underwriting (A) Working Group exposed for a 45-day comment period draft regulatory guidance while simultaneously exposing for a 30-day comment period a referral to the Market Conduct Examination Guidelines (D) Working Group proposing revisions to the NAIC Market Conduct Handbook. This is a significant shift from the working group’s prior work mostly gathering information to affirmatively flexing supervisory authority over insurance carriers’ existing accelerated underwriting practices.
Read MoreLocke Lord will host the Connecticut Bar Association CLE program presented by the Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee on Wednesday, March from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Alex Cox, will serve on a panel that will discuss the New CT Data Privacy Act (ECS230301).
Read MoreSpecialty insurer Beazley sponsored the first Cyber Insurance Catastrophe (CAT) bond recently, a new type of ILS or insurance linked security issued by a Bermuda entity. They announced the $45 million private placement on January 9, 2023. The bonds provide investors with a generous floating rate of interest and a return of principal in one year, provided that no single catastrophic event occurs across Beazley’s portfolio of cyber insurance policies that results in more than $300 million of losses. Any losses above $300 million incurred by Beazley on those policies as a result of that one event would be absorbed by the investors, up to the $45 million principal amount. The deal was marketed under an NDA, so not all of the details are available, but the bonds will not protect against losses from a state-sponsored cyberattack, which is typically excluded from cyber insurance policies as an act of war.
Read MoreLast month the members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) elected new leadership from amongst their membership for 2023. Missouri Director Chlora Lindley-Meyers is the new President and the first woman of color elected to that position. Connecticut Commissioner Andrew N. Mais is the new President-Elect, which means that he will fill in as President whenever, due to exigent circumstances, Director Lindley-Meyers is unable. As President-Elect, Commissioner Mais will be the presumptive NAIC President in 2024. North Dakota Commissioner Jon Godfread was elected Vice-President while Virginia Commissioner Scott A. White was elected Secretary-Treasurer.
Earlier this month, the NAIC named its committee chairs and vice chairs. The officers and the most recent past president all serve on the Executive Committee while Director Lindley-Myers will chair the Executive Committee as NAIC President. While the Executive Committee handles administration of the NAIC, the letter committees are where the bulk of the substantive law-making work of the NAIC occurs. As a result, the chairs and vice-chairs of these committees wield substantial influence.
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