NU Online News Service

The National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) is urging the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to get behind its credit-based insurance scoring model law and drop an idea to conduct a "questionable data call."

NCOIL wrote the NAIC in anticipation of the commissioners' Property & Casualty Committee hearing on Sept. 30 on the proposed data call, which NCOIL President Rep. Robert Damron, D-Ky., called "an answer in search of a problem."

The NAIC's data call is meant to gather information to help with policy debate, but Rep. George Keiser, R-N.D., NCOIL president-elect, said legislators "wonder what events, in particular, have prompted the effort, and what the merit of the plan would be."

NAIC should throw its support behind NCOIL's Model Act Regarding Use of Credit Information in Personal Insurance, the legislators said. The law has been passed in 27 states.

State legislators and others need to be involved in the debate, "particularly since there seems to be little cause for the initiative," said Rep. Keiser. NCOIL has asked a NAIC representative to explain the reasoning of the data call at the NCOIL annual meeting in Austin, Texas, in November.

The industry opposes the data call as well. Earlier this month the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) wrote to NAIC, and it was "in strong disagreement with the NAIC's development of this data call."

"Even if the results of the data call could produce an accurate assessment of the relative impact of credit and other rating factors on insurance premiums, to what end are insurers being asked to expend valuable man hours and resources to produce this information?" PCI asked NAIC.

In another letter to the NAIC, the American Insurance Association "respectfully urges" commissioners "not to move forward with the proposed data call."

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NCOIL: &#039;Little Cause&#039; For NAIC Credit Scoring Data Call

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NCOIL: 'Little Cause' For NAIC Credit Scoring Data Call