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August 21, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Consumer representatives are expressing outrage over what they say is a “revolving door” that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is failing to address.
Fourteen reps who get funding from the NAIC, Kansas City, Mo., to speak for consumers in NAIC affairs today sent all commissioners a letter criticizing the movement of state insurance commissioners, including several recent past presidents of the NAIC and NAIC committee heads, to positions with companies that they had previously regulated.
Citing an announcement earlier this week that Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell will take a position with a U.S. subsidiary of Swiss Reinsurance Company, Zurich, the consumer reps call on the NAIC “to institute a strong conflict of interest policy which includes a prohibition against lobbying the NAIC or other insurance regulatory bodies — including foreign insurance regulators and the [International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Basel, Switzerland] — for a period of two years following departure from public service.”
“We also ask that the NAIC specifically adopt a resolution asking Mr. Bell not to lobby the NAIC, the IAIS or foreign regulators for a period of two years from his departure,” the reps write.
The reps note that a second past NAIC president, Al Iuppa, the former Maine insurance director, took a job with Zurich Financial Services Group, Zurich, and that a third, Ernest Csiszar, the former South Carolina insurance director, took a job with the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, Des Plaines, Ill.
