American Insurance Association Urges State Regulators To Adopt Uniform Privacy Regulations

SKOKIE, IL -- March 11, 2000 --The American Insurance Association today urged regulators to allow the financial services reform law's extensive privacy protection requirements time to work and to adopt the standards in the federal law to ensure uniformity.

In testimony before the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), AIA's Executive Vice President Debra Ballen told regulators, "It is vital for all functional regulators, at both the state and federal level, to adopt uniform regulations. Such uniformity will provide benefits for insurers and their customers alike by avoiding confusion and maintaining a level playing field."

AIA testified at the public hearing on the consumer protections of the privacy provisions (Title V) of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (G-L-B), the financial services reform law, which deals with the privacy of financial information and subjects all financial institutions to the most extensive privacy protection requirements ever imposed. According to Title V, seven federal agencies in consultation with the NAIC must draft privacy regulations to govern the use of customer information.
AIA encouraged the NAIC to act quickly and cautiously to provide guidance to the states and the insurance industry.

"The statutory requirements of Gramm-Leach-Bliley should be given a chance to become operational rather than impose additional state statutory requirements on insurers and financial institutions," Ballen said. "In addition, we urge state regulators to use the federal regulations as a template so their actions are as consistent and uniform as possible. Uniformity will benefit both financial institutions and their customers by ensuring that the extensive privacy protections from the federal law are applied consistently."

A copy of the testimony is attached. For additional copies, or to receive it electronically, please contact Deirdre Manna at 847-470-1070 or 847-778-0842 or by e-mail at dmanna@mw.aiadc.org

The American Insurance Association is a trade association representing more than 370 major insurance companies which provide all lines of property and casualty insurance. AIA's headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. and the association has representatives in every state. All AIA press releases are available at www.aiadc.org