NAIC Online Portal Project Could Start In ?05

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, June 14, 3:25 p.m. EDT, SanFrancisco?Development of an Internet portal that providesregulatory information from the various states from a single entrypoint on the Web could start next year, a regulator said.[@@]

"The National Portal would be one source of insurance datainformation for consumers, regulators and companies," said NorthCarolina Insurance Commissioner Jim Long.

Mr. Long chairs the Information Systems Task Force of theNational Association of Insurance Commissioners, which has the taskof creating the group's online portal effort.

The portal, if developed, would serve as a helpful entry pointto find insurance regulatory data that are now being offered onvarious different sites by different jurisdictions.

Consumers would be able to access public regulatory informationthrough the portal, and the companies could access the site for allbusinesses conducted with the states. Additionally, stateregulators could use the portal to find a whole spectrum ofregulatory information from state insurance departments and theNAIC.

"We've been talking about this for a year, and we hope to startthe project in 2005," said Mr. Long, who held a session on thisissue at the NAIC summer meeting here.

The access to the portal would basically be free, Mr. Longadded. "The site will be developed by NAIC," he said. "It will havea very simple, easy-to-use design. We hope to have many moredetails on this project soon."