Delaware Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro published a Bulletin directed to all insurance carriers authorized to transact business in the state, informing them of the passing of a Senate Bill which prohibits certain underwriting and rating factors.
The Bill amends the "Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practiced defined" section of The Delaware Insurance Code to include a prohibition of insurers using data that may have an unintentional impact on protected classes as they relate to underwriting homeowners and private passenger motor vehicle insurance. The prohibited rating factors include:
- Non-pending arrests, charges, or indictments that do not result in conviction
- Convictions, arrests, charges, or indictments that do not relate in any way to either fraud or to the type of risk being insured
- Suspension or revocation of a driver's license when the suspension or revocation is for non-driving related reasons
This addition is the 30th in the list of unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts, which includes other things like:
- Misrepresentations and false advertising
- Defamation
- Boycott, coercion, and intimidation
- Unfair discrimination
- Rebates
- Unfair claim settlement practices
- Twisting
- Failure to respond to regulatory inquiries
- Use of credit scoring
The Bulletin can be found here.