The Center for Economic Justice (CEJ) has written a letter accusing the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) of fostering a culture of lack of transparency and accountability to the public.
CEJ's executive director, Birny Birnbaum, wrote the letter to NAIC President and Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger in response to a conference call the NAIC held with insurance industry members regarding the Market Conduct Annual Statement centralized data collection and publication proposal.
The proposal, adopted by the NAIC's Market Conduct "D" Committee on April 17, would centralize and organize the collection of data on insurers' and agents' market conduct.
(NU Online, April 18, http://www.propertyandcasualtyinsurancenews.com/cms/NUPC/Breaking%20News/2008/04/18-NAIC-jc?searchfor=data%20collection%20naic)
Insurers have expressed concerns about the confidentiality of the data that would be included in the reports, while consumer groups contend the information will lead to better regulatory oversight in the market.
Mr. Birnbaum was upset that the public was not notified about the latest conference call on the subject. He wrote, "Putting aside the issue of giving industry yet another forum to lobby assembled regulators against the proposal, why was the public not given notice of the call so we could listen to the arguments put forth by insurers and to the responses of regulators?"
He called this the "latest example of a lack of transparency and accountability of the NAIC to the public," and asked NAIC leaders to attend a consumer liaison meeting to discuss these concerns.
The consumer liaison meeting, Mr. Birnbaum said, will address the revolving door policy and conflict of interest, public information, and open meetings as these issues relate to the NAIC.
Mr. Birnbaum wrote, "On the issues of public information and open meetings, I continue to see the NAIC hold closed meetings with no substantive justification. And on issue after issue, I see regulators push for confidentiality of information, of which the market conduct Annual Statement is the latest example."
When contacted for a response, an NAIC spokesperson said the NAIC will respond in time but is currently dealing with fallout from the American International Group (AIG) situation.
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