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Effective August 31, 2010, the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (“OHIC”) will impose a readability requirement for all health insurance policies to be readable at the eighth grade level measured by the Flesch-Kincade formula.  The readability requirement comes in response to Rhode Island’s low adult literacy rate, and is designed to protect consumers by making health insurance policies, which are often complicated, easy to understand. …
Read More Rhode Island Imposes Readability Standards for Health Insurance Policies

In order to tap investor expectations of a rising yuan (RMB), insurers are preparing to launch yuan-denominated policies as a new product offering for insurers in the Hong Kong market. Insurance premiums make up almost 10% of Hong Kong’s GDP, compared with just 3% of China’s GDP. …
Read More Hong Kong: Launch of Yuan-Denominated Policies in Hong Kong

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (the CIRC) has granted Lloyd’s China a licence to write direct insurance. This is in addition to Lloyd’s China’s existing reinsurance licence (granted in March 2007). The announcement was made by Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s, on 19 May 2010 at the UK Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai. …
Read More China: Lloyd’s China Granted Licence to Write Direct Insurance

The Financial Ombudsman Service (the FOS) has recently published eight short case studies to help firms understand how complaints about sales of payment protection insurance (PPI) will be assessed. The case studies are available on the FOS website. …
Read More UK: The Financial Ombudsman Service Publishes Payment Protection Insurance Case Studies

In a letter from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the “NAIC”) to both House and Senate leaders, state insurance commissioners urged lawmakers to designate a non-voting seat for state banking, insurance and securities regulators on the Financial Stability Oversight Council (the “FSOC”). …
Read More State Insurance Commissioners Make Their Case for Inclusion in the Financial Stability Oversight Counsel

The Association of British Insurers (the ABI) has recently published a consultation paper on its statement of best practice for critical illness cover. Please click here to view the consultation paper. The ABI originally published the statement in 1999 following a report by the Office of Fair Trading on health insurance. The aim of the statement is to ensure that customers continue to get meaningful, understandable and affordable critical illness cover that meets their needs. …
Read More UK: The Association of British Insurers Consults on Statement of Best Practice for Critical Illness Cover

On 29 April 2010, European Advocate General Kokott gave her opinion in the case of Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd & Akcros Chemicals Ltd v European Commission. She was asked to consider whether “the protection of communications between lawyers and their clients (‘legal professional privilege’), guaranteed as a fundamental right under the law of the European Union, also extended to internal exchanges of opinions and information between the management of an undertaking and an ‘enrolled in-house lawyer’ employed by that undertaking?” …
Read More EU: European Advocate General Opinion Concludes No Privilege for In-house Lawyers