Consumer Groups: NAIC Needs To Rein In Its President
By Steven Brostoff
Washington
A coalition of consumer activist groups charged Ernie Csiszar, the current president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, with pushing a deregulation agenda and placing at risk the viability of state insurance regulation and associated consumer protections.
They called on the 50 state insurance commissioners to “rein in” Csiszars activities and direct him “to honor his position” as NAIC president, “or, if he is unwilling to do so, to resign and allow someone supportive of the NAIC and state regulation to take his place.”
Csiszar, who is the South Carolina Commissioner, favors broad deregulation and his views “are on the extreme of the spectrum of views of members of the NAIC,” the coalition charges in a letter to all the members of the Kansas City, Mo.-based NAIC. “Consumers will be hurt and state insurance regulators deprived of authority to help consumers or address market problems under the deregulation agenda.”
The letter was signed by J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, Washington, and Norma P. Garcia, a representative of Consumers Union, Washington. They signed the letter on behalf of a group called Americans for Insurance Reform.