Our Positions | Market Conduct Annual Statement
Along with solvency regulation, market conduct regulation represents one of the two pillars of insurance regulation. Insurance regulators have a valid and important role in monitoring the insurance marketplace to ensure that customers are treated fairly. However, this role can be often expanded beyond what is needed or prudent, resulting in unnecessary costs that ultimately are borne by those who pay for insurance product and services.
Insurers pay thousands of dollars each year to state regulators for expenses they incur in performing market conduct examinations on insurance companies. Often, exams amount to little more than “fishing expeditions” by regulators to identify technical violations or essentially duplicate examinations already completed by other state regulators. Some states seem to treat the fining authority associated market regulation function as a revenue source.
NAMIC Position
NAMIC supports reasonable market conduct reform initiatives that will reduce both the number and cost of market conduct exams and promote regulators focusing their attention on valid marketplace problems and bad actors. NAMIC opposes any initiatives that would impose additional burdensome market conduct exam requirements on insurers.
