Orlando, Fla.–After two years of spirited debate the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has given its first approval to a controversial set of new financial reporting requirements for nonpublic insurers patterned after the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Pennsylvania Deputy Commissioner Steve Johnson hailed the action of the NAIC-AICPA Liaison Committee, comparing it to accreditation as well as standardization of statutory accounting processes as major steps in the history of solvency regulation.

But pockets of industry opposition remained strong, demonstrated by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.

NAMIC's senior state advocacy director, Neil Alldredge, said that state legislative opposition could ultimately make Monday's action at the NAIC meeting here a pyrrhic victory for regulators pushing the measure.

The committee approved amendments to the Model Audit Rule aimed at ensuring that companies' auditors remain independent of their clients by prohibiting certain consultancy services, as well as ensuring that members of the audit committees remain independent of company management.

Mr. Johnson expressed alarm that companies in the age of Enron and WorldCom would not want to take some of the measures called for in the amendments as a matter of corporate prudence.

Most of the controversy surrounding the proposal centered on the internal controls reporting requirements, which public companies have found the most onerous in Sarbanes-Oxley since its passage in 2002.

In a compromise worked out with industry representatives, companies will no longer have to provide outside attestation of the adequacy of such controls. That change did much to secure most of the insurance industry's grudging support.

Steve Broadie, financial regulation manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), said he hoped the panel would wait for implementation guidance to be developed before it gave its approval.

But, Committee Chairman Doug Stolte, a Virginia deputy commissioner, promised that no “regulatory mischief” would take place in the development of the guidance.

The amendments face a long road before they become actual practice because, in another gesture to industry, the program was written to ensure either state legislators or lawmakers must approve them before they are in force.

Mr. Alldredge said that fierce and united opposition to the requirements expressed by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators as recently as last week could make enactment problematic in the coming years.

Full NAIC approval could come as early as the summer meeting June.

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NAIC Moves Disputed Reporting Model

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