NU Online News Service, May 3, 10:49 a.m.EDT--The National Association of Insurance Commissionerswill begin a pilot program this week with five states to storeelectronic fingerprints of licensed insurance producers.

NAIC announced that the criteria for being involved in the pilotis that the state currently conducts electronic background checkson insurance producers and has enabling authority to access theFBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System(IAFIS) and Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) database.Pilot states include Alaska, California, Idaho, New York andPennsylvania.

Participating states use FBI certified firms to verify theauthenticity of the prints submitted and then transmit theproducers' electronic fingerprints to their insurance departmentsand appropriate state law enforcement entities.

The digital fingerprints will also be sent to the NAIC'sprocessing center, where the prints will be retained in a separate,secure database to access for future use. The State ProducerLicensing Database will list producers whose prints have beenreceived.

"The initial phase of the project will focus on submission ofproducers' prints to a centralized location, which facilitates thecriminal background check process and promotes greater efficaciesand consumer protections in the licensing of producers," said LindaBrunette, chair of the Fingerprint Subgroup of the ProducerLicensing Working Group.