New efforts in various states to ban insurer use of credit records to rate consumers are unlikely to win passage, according to an insurance group's government affairs expert.

That assessment came from Neal Alldredge, state advocacy director for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, in the wake of a call by Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch for the banning of credit scoring.

"Mr. Hatch is running for governor, and so this is about politics more than anything else," said Mr. Alldredge.

With Minnesota's top insurance regulator, Commerce Commissioner Glenn Wilson, favoring credit scoring, in sharp contrast to his predecessor, regulatory action would seem out of the question now, according to Mr. Alldredge.

And the NAMIC official said he also does not see much hope of passage for a bill now in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature that would ban the practice.

In California state lawmakers will once again consider restrictions on credit scoring that go beyond those the industry has generally accepted that have been incorporated into the National Conference of Insurance Legislators.

The California action would impact mainly homeowners insurance for the time being since the practice has been banned for auto underwriting by virtue of the state's Proposition 103.

There will likely be no effort to challenge the 103 ban while credit scoring foe California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi is in office, but a new occupant could change the equation. The commissioner will leave office next year, having declined to seek reelection.

"That is why it is important that we oppose this measure," Mr. Alldredge said.

In Michigan, the insurance industry won the first round in its effort to overturn Office of Financial and Insurance Services Commissioner Linda Watters' ban on the practice. The case is now on appeal. The industry is also girding for battle in the state over Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's call for a 20 percent rate rollback.

The insurance industry has mounted a legal challenge to credit scoring restrictions imposed by Commissioner Kevin McCarty in Florida, as well.

Mr. Alldredge said he believes some amendments to credit scoring legislative action in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana could result from the storms that hit the area last year. They could take the form of "extraordinary life circumstances" provisions banning insurers from using potential negative credit events such as employment loss resulting from the hurricanes in insurance credit score calculations.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is due to discuss such a provision for model legislation at its spring meeting next month.

Special Reports /

Credit Score Ban Efforts Failing: NAMIC

Related Stories

Recommended For You