NAIC Finance Concerns Linger: NAII
By Michael Ha
NU Online News Service, Jan. 8, 3:19 p.m. EST?The National Association of Independent Insurers said it still has "lingering concerns" about the long-term fiscal plan for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the organization of U.S. insurance regulators.
NAII, a Des Plaines, Ill.-based insurance trade group which has been pressing the NAIC to tighten its fiscal belt, maintains that the NAIC still hasn't gone far enough in lowering its spending.
Commenting on NAIC's annual budget for 2003, which was finalized during a regulators' meeting last month, Robert L. Zeman, senior vice president for state government affairs at NAII, told National Underwriter that there is still a lot more cutting back to do.
"There are some good signs at the NAIC in terms of trying to control the growth of the budget. The NAIC took some steps during the budget process to try to control the spending and has made a round of cuts in December," Mr. Zeman said.
"But we have lingering concerns about whether that organization has gone far enough to reduce spending. The group still has a budget that is approximately $50 million and its revenue is $52.9 million. I think more reductions in the spending are needed and more needs to be done to control the cost," he said.
On a brighter note, Mr. Zeman added, it was good that the NAIC decided not to raise database fees for this year. "But despite such positive signs, concerns linger about the level of growth and spending in the NAIC budget," he said.
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