Iowa, Maine, Missouri Sign IAIS Information-Sharing Agreement
March 30, 2015 by Thomas Harman, associate editor, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com
BASEL, Switzerland – Iowa, Maine and Missouri have become the latest states whose insurance regulators have joined an international cooperation and information exchange agreement framework established by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors.
All applicants are subject to review and approval by an independent team of IAIS members, but membership allows supervisors to exchange relevant information with each other, promoting financial stability and sound supervision in cross-border insurance operations, the IAIS said.
IAIS Executive Committee Chair Felix Hufeld welcomed the new states. “In order to achieve our ultimate goal of policyholder protection within the global insurance marketplace, an insurance supervisor needs the ability to cooperate quickly and effectively. The Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding is an essential regulatory tool — not only in crisis situations, but on a day-to-day basis — for supervisors to foster safer and more stable insurance markets,” he said in a statement.
The IAIS said this brings the number of participating jurisdictions worldwide to 48, including 10 states. Participating jurisdictions now include 63% of the world’s premiums, the IAIS said.
“The [Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding] is a significant, collaborative regulatory tool that eliminates the need to establish individual, bilateral agreements in the regulation of insurance,” Missouri Director John Huff said in a statement.
Speaking to Best’s News Service at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Spring National Meeting in Phoenix just after the announcement, Huff said pacts such as this are an example of increasing trust and cooperation among regulators. “It eliminates the need for bilateral agreements between Missouri and regulators in other countries,” Huff said. As other nations join, the framework allows regulators to trust one another and how they treat information going forward, he said.
As a new participant, the Iowa Insurance Division said it will be able to exchange relevant information with — and provide assistance to — other participating signatories, promoting the financial stability and sound supervision of cross-border insurance operations for the benefit and protection of consumers, according to a division statement.
Other U.S. signatories include California, Connecticut, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington state. Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are among the international participants.
Pennsylvania became the sixth state to join during the NAIC’s Fall National Meeting last November (Best’s News Service, Dec. 3, 2014). Michigan later became the seventh to sign the agreement.
