According to media reports, during its July 26 conference call, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Executive (EX) Committee/Plenary approved the proposal for the Corporate Governance (E) Working Group to develop a new model law to facilitate the annual collection of information regarding insurers’ corporate governance practices.  According to the proposal, the Working Group believes it is necessary for regulators to collect and review corporate governance information from insurers in the period between onsite examinations, which usually occur every three to five years depending on state laws.  The new model law is currently titled “Annual Reporting of Corporate Governance Practices of Insurance Model Act.”

The Working Group intends to have a draft ready for discussion at the upcoming NAIC Summer 2013 Meeting.  It is anticipated that various industry groups will have alternative proposals ready for discussion at the meeting as well.  An area of particular concern is the confidentiality protections that will be afforded to any information collected from insurers on their corporate governance practices.   The proposal indicates that the Working Group expects that the model law will be finalized and adopted by the NAIC within a year, and uniformly by state legislators within the following three years.

We will continue to follow this issue and provide further updates on InsureReinsure.com.  In addition, Barry Weissman (Partner, Los Angeles) and Geoff Rosenblat (Hartford) are attending the NAIC Summer 2013 Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, from August 23 through August 26, and would be delighted to catch up with blog-readers at the event, either formally or informally, regarding this or any other current issues.  They can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected].

Attached is a copy of the proposal.