Insurers Try To Keep Fingers On Fingerprints

December 05, 2005 at 07:00 PM

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The American Council of Life Insurers fears that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is tightening its grip on an insurance producer fingerprint database project.[@@]

The NAIC, Kansas City, Mo., has been working with insurers to develop the National Insurance Producer Registry.

Insurers now believe the joint effort is becoming an effort "to reduce NIPR to an operating subsidiary of the NAIC," Michael Lovendusky, a representative for the ACLI, Washington, said during an industry liaison meeting with regulators.

The NAIC's apparent effort to control the fingerprint repository is "a breach of understanding by which we have faithfully operated all these years," Lovendusky said.

Diana Marchese, another ACLI representative, noted that insurers probably will pay for the construction of the fingerprint database.

But Andrew Beal, NAIC general counsel, recently said that the NAIC is not trying to absorb the NIPR and that it has been trying to bring the NIPR under NAIC auspices because the NAIC wants to ensure the confidentiality of the fingerprint data.

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