NAIC Postpones Decision on Public Release of Individual Company Data

A committee of The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) postponed adoption of model law amendments that would allow aggregate insurance company information to be released publicly, but left to state regulators the authority to provide individual insurer information to the public.

The Property and Casualty Insurance Committee could not agree on amendments to the section of the Property and Casualty Rate Model Law relating to the public disclosure of information after insurance company representatives testified that individual company statistical data should be considered trade secrets and release of it could hurt competition among companies and within a state market.

A lively debate between committee members, after industry and consumer representatives testified, left the committee still divided on the issue, postponing further consideration until the March 2002 NAIC Meeting.

“The proposed amendments to Section 17 of the model put forward by Texas Commissioner Jose Montemayor made a significant contribution toward finalizing this long-standing controversy by balancing the interests of all parties on the issue,” said NAII Vice President and Western Regional Manager Sam Sorich.

Sorich, however, added that NAII suggests an additional change to Commissioner Montemayor’s amendments that would clarify that individual state regulators “must always make their decisions within the requirements of applicable state laws.”

According to Sorich, market specific information including zip code company specific data should be protected to ensure that companies are able to compete effectively.

In final action, the committee gave NAII and other interested parties until Jan. 15, 2002 to submit additional written comments on the public disclosure of aggregate information and information relating to individual insurers.