The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has canceled the fall quarterly meeting set for next week due to the devastating flooding that hit New Orleans.
The fall meeting had been set for Sept. 10-13 in New Orleans.
"The first priority for all insurance commissioners is responding to disasters," said NAIC President Diane Koken. "Our hearts go out to our colleagues who are trying to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina."
Catherine Weatherford, NAIC executive vice president and chief executive officer, said that after surveying members, the organization has agreed to cancel the meeting and work through executive conference calls in the coming weeks.
"Because regulators are used to conducting telephone conference calls, we do not expect any interruption of NAIC business," she said.
Ms. Weatherford added that insurance regulators are experts at emergency response and "our officers and key committee chairs are continuing to collaborate on key initiatives."
The possibility of holding a smaller meeting in October is being considered, she noted.
Earlier in the week, commissioners looked into the possibility of switching cities, but the logistics of finding accommodations for 1,500 regulators and industry participants in the period of less than two weeks proved too daunting.
The last time an NAIC meeting was canceled was September 2001 when a meeting was scheduled to take place in Boston shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. A special meeting was set in October, when the topic of discussion was developing a mechanism for the industry to respond to future attacks. This ultimately became the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
The NAIC has pledged $25,000 to the American Red Cross Special Hurricane Fund to assist with recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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