SEATTLE--Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said he believes that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners should consider giving large states more voting power.

Mr. Kriedler, speaking here yesterday during the closing session of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America's annual meeting, said he was in favor of a proportional voting system for more populous states.

"You can't have the Northern Marianas Islands with the same vote as the 19 million population of New York. It isn't reasonable," he remarked.

The NAIC should shift to make the organization, "much more responsive to large premium states," he said. Without such a shift, the NAIC cannot remain a viable regulatory group and avoid efforts to shift control to a federal regulator, he noted.

The proportional voting issue, Mr. Kriedler said, is one which could come up when the NAIC holds its planned retreat in February. That meeting, he said, would present "a great opportunity for debate."

Discussing a question about how elected and appointed insurance commissioners perform, Mr. Kriedler, an elected Democrat, said that some elected officials go after insurers to score political points, but he sees drawbacks with appointed commissioners as well.

Appointees may be too focused on "their own backyard" and have a political agenda set by their governor. In addition, he noted that there is a problem of rapid turnover among appointed commissioners, who average 24 months on the job.

As a result of Tuesday's elections, Mr. Kriedler said he would guess that as much as one-third of the membership of the NAIC will undergo a change.

Mr. Kriedler added that in addition to a need for proportional representation, the NAIC must "rise to the challenge" and do more to streamline the regulatory process for licensing agents and speed insurance product approvals to get them to market faster.

He believes the NAIC is capable of balancing its job of providing protection for consumers while eliminating impediments in the insurers' marketplace.

In his state, Mr. Kriedler said the insurance department processes rate and form filings in less than 30 days. When insurers are slow with their paperwork in the course of filing a request, his staff calls to find out if there is a problem and if they can be of help.

Regulators, he said, have to make sure that the same effort to speed processing is the case in all states.

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Give Big States More NAIC Clout: Kreidler

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