Presidential Directions

NAIC’s focus on maintaining state regulation doesn’t mean that it isn’t looking at ways to make things easier, however. Sevigny points out that NAIC believes that there are parts of insurance regulation that lend themselves to uniformity–as an example, he cites producer licensing, for which he says NAIC has already worked on developing some standards; work will continue, he says, on getting those standards adopted on a state-by-state basis.

NAIC also supported another Kanjorski bill that would allow producer licensing reciprocity in all states as long as standards for those producers were maintained at a high level. It also supported a bill to develop a system of surplus lines for reinsurance and reinsurance collateralization, and is also working on modernization for reinsurance through its new Reinsurance Supervision Review Department (RSRD), created under its Reinsurance Regulatory Modernization Framework Proposal; the RSRD will look at the supervisory requirements for reinsurance in other countries, and, according to an earlier NAIC announcement, “establish standards for a state to be certified to regulate insurance on a cross-border basis.”

International matters, says Sevigny, are very high on NAIC’s priority list. NAIC is fortunate, he says, to have three members on the executive committee of the International Insurance Society (IIS), and a subcommittee that will help to shape the future of international insurance regulation will be chaired by Commissioner Sandy Praeger, the outgoing president of NAIC. So, Sevigny says, NAIC will have a significant role in shaping the future of international insurance regulation.

The two most urgent issues before NAIC in 2009, he says, will be health insurance and how it may change under the new administration, and the consideration of capital and surplus relief as requested by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI).