PCI Calls for More Specific Regulatory Modernization Agenda at NAIC Meeting

District of Columbia Insurance Commissioner Larry Mirel responded to a request from the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) for regulators to develop a more specific action plan for regulatory modernization by calling for PCI and other industry groups to develop a comprehensive report on the current state regulatory environment and recommendations for improvements in each state. Lenore Marema, vice president, insurance regulatory affairs for PCI, made the request to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Industry Liaison Committee meeting during the NAIC’s winter meeting.

“We support the NAIC’s efforts to keep the regulatory modernization issue at the forefront of the organization’s agenda,” Marema said. “NAIC’s work on its Statement of Intent to Modernize State Insurance Regulation and its development of national standards and other work products to achieve reform is laudable. However, we believe that NAIC and the industry could more effectively achieve meaningful reform of the state system if regulators adopted a more specific action plan for the type of modernization efforts they plan to support in 2005 and the states in which those reforms will be targeted.

“PCI would love to see every state tackle at least one regulatory modernization issue in 2005,” Marema said. “We understand that political realities and resource limitations may not make it possible for every state to tackle every regulatory modernization issue. Yet it is still within each state’s power to move the ball forward – if only incrementally – on the issues that can be accomplished in 2005. States should each volunteer to accomplish what parts of the NAIC agenda they can, and document their progress so that there is a clear record of their achievements at the end of next year.”

Commissioner Mirel, who chairs the Industry Liaison Committee, suggested that because PCI and other industry groups have a thorough understanding of the regulatory environment in all 50 states, the national insurance trade groups prepare a report on current conditions for consideration by the NAIC.

Topics Legislation