Rhode Island § 27-71-4 - Market Conduct Surveillance Act

§ 27-71-4. Domestic responsibility and deference to other states.

(a) The commissioner is authorized to conduct market conduct examinations as deemed necessary by the commissioner for Rhode Island policyholder protection, which shall be accomplished by comprehensive or targeted examinations of domestic insurers and targeted examinations of foreign insurers, based on the results of market analysis. The commissioner may delegate responsibility for conducting an examination of a domestic insurer, foreign insurer, or an affiliate of an insurer to the insurance commissioner of another state if that insurance commissioner agrees to accept the delegated responsibility for the examination.

(b) The commissioner may delegate such responsibility to a commissioner of a state in which the domestic insurer, foreign insurer, or affiliate has a significant number of policies or significant premium volume.

(c) If the commissioner elected to delegate responsibility for examining an insurer, the commissioner shall accept a report of the examination prepared by the commissioner to whom the responsibility has been delegated.

(d) In lieu of conducting a market conduct examination of an insurer, the commissioner shall accept a report of a market conduct examination on such insurer prepared by the insurance commissioner of the insurer’s state of domicile or another state, unless:

(1) The laws of that state applicable to the subject of the examination are not deemed by the commissioner to be substantially similar to those of this state;

(2) The examining state does not have a market conduct surveillance system that the commissioner deems comparable to the market conduct surveillance system required under this chapter; or

(3) The examination from the other state’s commissioner has not been conducted within the past three (3) years.

(e) If the insurance commissioner or the designee to whom the examination responsibility was delegated pursuant to subsection (a) or the report of a market conduct examination prepared by the insurance commissioner of another state pursuant to subsection (d), did not evaluate the specific area or issue of concern to the commissioner or a specific requirement of Rhode Island law, the commissioner may pursue a targeted examination or market analysis of the unexamined area pursuant to this statute.

(f) The commissioner’s determination under subsection (d) is discretionary with the commissioner and is not subject to appeal.

(g) Subject to a determination under subsection (d), if a market conduct examination conducted by another state results in a finding that an insurer should modify a specific practice or procedure, the commissioner shall accept documentation that the insurer has made a similar modification in the state, in lieu of initiating a market conduct action or examination related to that practice or procedure. The commissioner may require other or additional practice or procedure modifications as are necessary to achieve compliance with specific state laws or regulations that differ substantially from those of the state that conducted the examination.