Consumer Rep Wants Say On Market Conduct

July 16, 2008 at 08:42 PM
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A funded consumer representative is asking state insurance regulators when the reps will get their chance to comment on a proposed Market Conduct Analysis Statement.

The consumer reps get funding from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., to represent consumers in NAIC proceedings.

Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, Austin, Texas, today wrote to NAIC President Sandy Praeger to ask why the reps have received no response to a July 8 e-mail requesting a chance to express their views on the NAIC's market conduct statement project, which could create a new, standard system for collecting and storing market conduct data.

The consumer reps also want to know why they have not received information about the project or an explanation of why a conference call to discuss the issue was canceled, Birnbaum writes in the letter.

"I ask that the NAIC show at least the same responsiveness to consumer concerns as it does to industry concerns," Birnbaum writes. "I also ask that the NAIC operate with a reasonable level of public accountability, such that an issue scheduled for public discussion does not simply disappear without explanation."

Birnbaum said in an interview that the market conduct analysis project is "of critical importance to consumers."

"The NAIC as an organization needs to be more responsive," Birnbaum said.

The NAIC was not immediately available to comment on the letter.

In related news, Birnbaum questioned a move by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators, Troy, N.Y., to pass a market conduct reporting resolution last week.

Birnbaum said the resolution came up without input from all parties.

NCOIL discussed the market conduct reporting project July 11.

NCOIL states in the resolution that:

- No state legislature has required a fundamental change or expansion in the nature of the insurer annual statement to include market conduct data.

- NCOIL has concerns regarding NAIC authority to collect market conduct data as part of an annual statement filing.

- NCOIL questions whether the costs of compliance might outweigh the benefits to consumers, insurance companies, regulators, and state legislatures.

- NCOIL has concerns regarding the confidentiality of market conduct data, because such data has not before been made public on a routine basis.

NCOIL commits in the resolution commits to working with the NAIC and individual state regulators.

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