WASHINGTON--NAIC President Walter Bell today ruled out support by state regulators for a safe harbor for small insurers from antitrust laws in a post-McCarran-Ferguson Act world.

In comments after a speech to life insurance agents meeting here, Mr. Bell, also insurance commissioner of Alabama, said it was essential that small insurers have access to claims and other data in order to remain competitive.

He acknowledged, however, that removing large insurers from the mix would make it too expensive for small insurers to access the data, and also make it difficult for Insurance Services Office (ISO) to remain in business.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.