Alliance To NAIC: Get States Moving On Reform
NU Online News Service, Dec. 9, 2:49 p.m. EST?If they want to avoid federal oversight state insurance regulators should move faster to modernize their regulatory processes, an industry trade group warned regulators meeting in California.[@@]
Recent Congressional oversight hearings "certainly should have suggested to state regulators that Congress may not be willing to wait [until 2006-2008 deadlines] to see real improvement in state insurance regulation," Lenore Marema, Alliance of American Insurers vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, told a committee session at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners winter meeting, at Anaheim.
She spoke at the NAIC industry liaison committee session. Ms. Marema told committee participants that the current 2006-2008 deadlines for getting all 50 states to modernize their regulatory processes may be too late, especially as Congress continues to discuss federal-level oversight to improve efficiencies in insurance regulation.
She also chided regulators for expending too much budget and strategy on defending state regulation in Washington, D.C. instead of focusing on local statehouses.
"While a defensive agenda may be necessary, we believe more time should be spent in the state capitals affirmatively enacting and implementing the state modernization agenda already on the table," Ms. Marema told regulators. "The NAIC needs to act sooner rather than later on key areas such as rate and form filing, company licensing, agents' licensing, and market conduct."
The threat of federal oversight won't go away until the states improve their regulatory efficiency and effectiveness, "so we would like to see more state-specific plans that identify the items from the NAIC's ?Statement of Intent Agenda' that need to be implemented in each state and that set time frames for the next action," she said.
She said the Alliance, based in Downers Grove, Ill., has "a common end-goal with state regulators–an efficient regulatory system at the state level," adding, "It's time to start benchmarking some real progress at the state level."
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.