Brokers Offer Full Support for Surplus Lines Reform Bill

The National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices offered their full support and applauded the passage of the Non-Admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2006 (H.R. 5637), by the House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises.

The Subcommittee passed the bill on Wednesday, sending it to the full committee for review. The bill, introduced by Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite (FL) and Dennis Moore (KS) on June 19, would improve and streamline the regulation of non-admitted insurance and reinsurance, says Richard Bouhan, executive director and general counsel for NAPSLO. In June, Bouhan testified in support of the bill and on Wednesday said he was happy to see the bill moved out of the subcommittee.

“NAPSLO is pleased to see that the HR 5637 has been passed out of the subcommittee and hopes it will be passed by the full committee and Congress,” Bouhan said. “We believe it is the right bill at the right time. This legislation will bring much-needed relief to the complex and confusing surplus lines regulatory process, and we are grateful that many of NAPSLO’s concerns are directly addressed in the bill.”

Many of the bill’s provisions, including the creation of a uniform system of premium tax allocation and remittance, uniform standards for producer licenses, one-state compliance on multi-state surplus lines risks, and direct access to the surplus lines market for sophisticated purchasers are concepts long endorsed by NAPSLO.

“We believe that this legislation will significantly increase the level of efficiency for surplus lines insurance, particularly across multiple jurisdictions, for everyone involved in the non-admitted market, from the companies down to the consumers,” Bouhan said.

A complete copy of Bouhan’s testimony is available on the Legislation/Regulation section of the NAPSLO website (www.napslo.org), under the NEWS heading.

Source: NAPSLO