On 13 June 2008, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) announced that the moratorium enabling consumers to take out substantial amounts of insurance without having to disclose adverse results of predictive genetic tests, has been extended to 2014. …
Read More UK: ABI Extends Genetics Moratorium to 2014

A white paper examining the potential impact of climate change on the insurance industry has recently been approved by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (“NAIC”) Climate Change and Global Warming Task Force (the “Task Force”).  The white paper is intended to begin a process of encouraging, or even requiring, insurers to address climate change risk in order to protect consumer and insurer solvency. …
Read More NAIC Considers Climate Change Measures

The United States Supreme Court recently vacated a judgment of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that had held that questions regarding the willfulness of violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act are an issue of fact. 

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Read More U.S. Supreme Court Vacates Judgment: Questions Concerning the Willfulness of Fair Credit Reporting Act Violations May Not Be for the Jury

Governor Jim Douglas of Vermont signed S.284 (the “Bill”) into law on May 28, 2008.  Among other things, the Bill includes provisions to strengthen existing captive insurance company regulations, facilitates the merger of captives into existing companies and increases consumer protection. 

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Read More Vermont Governor Signs Captives-Related Bill

In a recent trial, a jury awarded $21 million to a grocery store chain and its owner against their insurer for the insurer’s unreasonable failure to pay for Katrina-related damages sustained to several of their stores.  The trial in the case of Marketfare Annunciation, LLC, et al. v. United Fire & Casualty Insurance Com, et al., took place in federal court in Louisiana. 

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Read More Louisiana Jury Awards $21 million Against Insurer for Katrina Claims

Last week, North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Jim Long issued a news release urging consumers holding long term care insurance policies issued by two subsidiaries of Conseco Inc. (“Conseco”) to be aware of a multi-state settlement (the “Settlement”) that could result in adjustments made to past claims.  Conseco agreed to a $2.3 million fine, along with an additional $30 million for claims-handling improvements and restitution. 

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Read More North Carolina Issues News Release Regarding Conseco’s Multi-State Settlement Regarding Long Term Care Insurance Claims

On 10 June 2008, the CEA issued a press release stating that it believed that failure to adopt a risk-based approach to the calculation of the MCR would perpetuate the disadvantages of the current regulatory system, Solvency I. Michaela Koller, director general of the CEA, said that, “Approaches to calculating the MCR that are not consistent with the overall system could jeopardise the effectiveness of the whole Solvency II regime” and called for the MCR to be linked to the solvency capital (SCR) requirement so that both reflect the true risk profile of the insurer. The CEA suggested that the MCR should be calculated as a percentage of the SCR. 

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Read More EU: Solvency II – Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA) Calls for Risk-Sensitive Approach to the Calculation of the Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR)

The insurance regulators in New York and Germany have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), which establishes a formal basis for greater co-ordination between the two jurisdictions. 

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Read More EU: New York and German Insurance Regulators Agree on Closer Co-operation

In April we reported on the UK Treasury’s publication of a summary of responses to its consultation on certain changes to rules relating to insurance portfolio transfers (known as Part VII transfers) (see the post here). 

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Read More UK: Update on Changes to the Insurance Business Transfer Regime