Market Conduct: Regulators Want 2004 Data Call, NCOIL Finishing Model Draft

By Jim Connolly

August 21, 2003 at 08:00 PM

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NU Online News Service, Aug. 21, 2003, 5:20 p.m. EDT – The National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Albany, N.Y., could have the first draft of a proposed market conduct model law ready for review by Aug. 25.

NCOIL plans to hold a hearing on the proposed model Sept. 12 in Chicago, according to Tim Tucker, the group's director of state-federal affairs.

If all goes well, NCOIL could adopt the model in November, at its annual meeting in Santa Fe, N.M., Tucker says.

Meanwhile, regulators who have participated in a market conduct data call organized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., say they will probably repeat the data call in 2004.

The life data will probably be due in April 2004, and the due date for the property-casualty data is still under discussion, according to Sue Stead, an Ohio regulator.

The information supplied by insurers participating in the first data call already has helped regulators track down potential problems, Stead says.

Stead, who heads the NAIC's market analysis work group, says regulators will be taking a closer look at six life companies that supplied unusual data.

Life insurers hope that regulators will conduct the data call in a uniform way rather conducting what amount to nine mini-exams, according to Linda Lanam, general counsel of the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington.

Lenore Marema, vice president-legal and regulatory affairs at the Alliance of American Insurers, Downers Grove, Ill., says she wants to know whether cash-strapped state insurance departments really have the resources to collect and analyze more data.

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