A proposal to centralize the filing and storage of annual market conduct reports has been approved by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (the “NAIC”) Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs (D) Committee, and is headed to the Executive Committee for consideration.  Under the proposal, insurers would be required to submit only one market conduct report annually, as a supplement to the annual financial statements filed with the NAIC.  Twenty-four states currently collect the annual market conduct statement data.

Regulators and consumer advocates tend to support the proposal, saying that it will permit them to better assess insurance companies and will lead to better regulatory oversight in the market.  Meanwhile, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (“NAMIC”), along with other industry groups, issued a statement strongly opposing the proposal and expressed a number of concerns.  These include worries that the proposal would not protect the confidentiality of information contained in annual market conduct reports, and that releasing such information into the public could lead to abuse among competing insurance companies and class action lawyers.

Additional information on the proposal, including exposure drafts of the filings can be found by clicking here.  A complete copy of the NAMIC’s statement can be viewed here.

We will continue to monitor this proposal and provide updates at InsureReinsure.com.