Alliance Views AZ’s Proposed Fingerprinting Requirement as Burden

The Alliance of American Insurers filed comments with the Arizona insurance department regarding proposed amendments to the state’s insurance holding company law that would require insurers that are part of holding companies to file biographical information on officers and directors, including fingerprint cards.

The Alliance believes that the proposed change would serve only to add more costly red tape to the regulatory process with no corresponding benefit. In its comments to the department, the Alliance urged Arizona not to follow other states that require fingerprint cards of officers and directors, but instead to use the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Model Biographical Affidavit for all company filings in which biographical information is required.

Use of the NAIC form would ensure the consistency and uniformity that helps companies obtaining licenses in multiple states, while providing the essential information the department needs to conduct background checks, according to Peter Gorman, associate vice president of the Alliance’s Western Region.

Gorman feels that companies should be required to complete only one form–the NAIC model–rather than provide the same information on the same people in two different formats, one for licensing and the other for holding company regulation. Based in Downers Grove, Ill., the Alliance of American Insurers is a national trade association representing 326 property/casualty insurance companies.

Topics Arizona