Commissioners Expect Few Problems from Y2K Rollover

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Executive Vice President Cathy Weatherford said state regulators expect few problems with insurance companies or state insurance departments with the Year 2000 rollover December 31st.

"The NAIC's Year 2000 Insurance Industry Preparedness Task Force has made significant progress in implementing the initiatives developed by the task force to gauge Y2K compliance and readiness by the insurance industry," Weatherford said. "The members of the NAIC's Y2K Industry Preparedness Task Force believe there will be little disruption of the insurance industry when the year 2000 begins. We will be collecting information from companies during the first quarter of 2000 to see what types of problems did occur.

"The task force also plans to continue to monitor insurance companies that were considered to be at risk of not becoming compliant by year end through additional conference calls with the domiciliary regulator," she added. "It was reported that only approximately 2 percent of the 1,100 insurers reviewed were experiencing varying problems to varying degrees. That means there should be little disruption.

"In addition, internally, NAIC staff renovated 110 internal systems," Weatherford said. "This includes 100% of the critical and important categories. More importantly, they have all been tested in a Year 2000 time-machine environment to simulate what will happen at 12:01 a.m. on January 1, 2000. Of the critical and important systems, 100% successfully passed all the tests. That means our systems are ready, and the NAIC should not experience any problems with the Y2K change.

"State insurance departments have assured us they have done the proper testing and are ready for the rollover, as well," she said. "If consumers experience any problems with the insurance companies, we encourage them to contact their state department of insurance for assistance."