NU Online News Service, Dec.7, 4:05 p.m. EST

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted a $70.9 million operating budget for 2010 at its winter meeting in San Francisco.

NAIC's outlay includes total revenues of $73.6 million and total expenses of $70.9 million, which it said represent a 0.7 percent increase and an 0.8 percent decrease, respectively, from the 2009 budget, for $2.7 million in projected net revenue.
Among the items is $252,000 for commissioner travel to NAIC National Meetings and $250,000 is earmarked for needs-based Grant Funds for NAIC National Meetings.
Net revenue for 2010 was projected as $2,663,271 compared with $ 1,578,892 for 2009. The expense increase listed for salaries was $2, 049,347.

"We believe the NAIC budget represents a thoughtful and transparent proposal for 2010," said NAIC President-Elect and West Virginia Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline.

"The value of the NAIC to its membership and regulated entities is clear from the State Insurance Regulatory Toolkit – value which far exceeds the annual operating budget," she said.

Ms. Cline added that "the value of the NAIC's centralized systems, products and services translate to tremendous efficiencies and cost savings to the regulated industry, greater uniformity in the state regulatory structure and a more coordinated and effective regulatory regime for the purpose of strong consumer protection."

Business and Fiscal Impact Statements for three new policy and business initiatives at the NAIC include:

oMarket Conduct Annual Statement: a proposal to replace the current Access database filing process with a Web-based front-end application for the collection of 2010 data in 2011 by all states.

oApplication Development and Testing Tools Expansion: proposal expands existing information technology tools for managing the testing and development of NAIC applications and databases.

oSolvency Modernization Webinar: proposal to offer a new NAIC education and training course on Solvency Modernization.

NAIC staff began working on the budget in May and formally presented it to the membership in September. A public hearing was held in November to provide insurance trade associations and consumer representatives, as well as NAIC members, an opportunity to provide comments.

Information about the NAIC budget is online at www.naic.org/about_budget.htm.

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