Add Hawaii and New Hampshire to the list of states enacting legislation to adopt the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact. The Aloha and Granite states join Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia in taking up the measure, which creates uniform national product standards and provides a central point of filing for insurers.Twenty-two more states currently are considering enactment of the Interstate Compact.
"We have a responsibility to ensure quality, seamless service to both consumers and industry, not only within each state, but throughout the nation," says New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny. "Through the Interstate Compact, we have an opportunity to build a marketplace that better serves everyone."
In related news, the Kansas City, Mo.-based National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Interstate Compact National Standards Working Group adopted national insurance product standards for individual variable annuities and individual non-variable annuities. The working group also will conduct an interim meeting in the coming weeks to hear comments on product standards for individual term-life insurance and individual flexible premium adjustable life insurance.
"Implementing insurance marketplace efficiencies, via product uniformity and reciprocity among the states, is the cornerstone of our modernization initiatives," says Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell, who also chairs the working group. "Drafting and adopting these product standards, as well as others we are presently considering, is of paramount importance in redefining a national, streamlined system of regulatory collaboration among the states."
Source: NAIC
