The National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") has launched an effort to coordinate the collection of premiums and claims data regarding business interruption insurance across and on behalf of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and the US territories.
As of the end of April, nearly half the US state insurance regulators had issued a range of bulletins and data calls to the insurance industry with respect to business interruption ("BI") insurance. Insurers have had to respond to such bulletins and data calls while continuing to meet the needs of their policyholders and their businesses through the various emergency measures in place across the US states. Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, the NAIC has launched a data call to collect premiums and claims data regarding BI insurance across and on behalf of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and the US territories (collectively, the "Participating Jurisdictions").
According to the Business Interruption COVID-19 Data Call Letter ("Letter") issued by the NAIC to "Property and Casualty Insurers", the purpose of the data will be to "assist state insurance regulators and others in the course of analysis of the financial condition of commercial insurers to understanding which insurers are writing applicable coverage, the size of the market, the extent of exclusions related to COVID-19, and claims and losses related to COVID-19."
The data call applies to all admitted and non-admitted domestic property and casualty insurers, including surplus lines insurers domiciled in a US state or territory, who wrote BI coverage in any of the Participating Jurisdictions in 2019 or 2020. Non-US insurers (including alien surplus lines insurers) are excluded, as are US life or health, monoline financial guaranty, mortgage guaranty, title, fidelity, and non-medical professional liability insurers as well as all reinsurers.
The data call is being conducted in two parts:
- The first part requires completion of the Premiums Data Template, which is a one-time data submission due by May 22; and
- The second part requires completion of the Claims Data Template, with the first submission of cumulative data through June 8 due by June 15 and updates thereafter on a monthly basis.
Data on premiums written should include only premium with respect to BI coverage, which the data call instructions state may be found in business owners policies ("BOP") as well as commercial multiple peril ("CMP"), including, fire, inland marine, allied lines, and certain commercial packaged policies ("CPP"). The premium data call is for total premium written in 2019 and the number of policies in force as of December 31, 2019, and must include the percentage of policies with an exclusion for "viral contamination, virus, disease, pandemic, or similar exclusion," as well as the percentage of policies with a "physical loss requirement." BOP and CMP/CPP premiums are to be reported separately. Claims data being collected is specific to claims and losses related to COVID-19.
The data must be provided on a group basis with information for all companies within the group to be aggregated for submission. Definitions and instructions for completion of the data templates and submission of the data can be found on the NAIC website:
https://content.naic.org/industry_property_casualty_data_call.htm.
It is hoped that the such a single, coordinated data call will facilitate the US insurance regulators' efforts to understand BI coverages in the marketplace and lead to a more harmonized regulatory response.
Originally published 8 May, 2020
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