Annual Meeting Hotel Deadline Almost Here!

The deadline for reservations at the JW Marriott Nashville, host hotel for NOLHGA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and MPC meeting, is Monday, September 16. After that, NOLHGA can no longer guarantee the special rate of $329/night plus tax. If you haven’t made your hotel reservations yet, we encourage you to do so soon!

NOLHGA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and MPC meeting will be held on October 7–9, and the meeting website includes registration for in-person and virtual attendance, online hotel reservations, updated agendas for both meetings, and more. Annual Meeting registration is $675 for guaranty association members and $775 for non-members. The Guest fee, which provides access to all Annual Meeting group events, is $125. There is no fee to attend the MPC meeting, but some sessions will be restricted to guaranty association representatives only.

If you have any trouble accessing the Annual Meeting website, please contact Dan Hicks. If you have any questions about the Annual Meeting or MPC meeting, contact Sean McKenna.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna Global Bankers Insurance Group (North Carolina)

Updated Cost Files To Be Posted in October

The North Carolina Supreme Court recently granted Global Bankers Insurance Group’s (GBIG’s) motion to withdraw its Petition for Discretionary Review of the Liquidation Order against Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company (CBLIC) and Bankers Life Insurance Company (BLIC). As a result, the Liquidation Order’s anticipated effective date—and the anticipated triggering of guaranty associations in the BLIC and CBLIC cases—is expected to occur on November 30, 2024.

NOLHGA expects to update the Insolvency Cost Files with the most recent financial data for BLIC and CBLIC in early October. All affected guaranty associations will be notified when the updated files are posted. If you have any questions about the Insolvency Cost Files, please contact Keith Sheridan.

Task Force Chair – John Colpean;   Staff Contact - Bill O'Sullivan

Regulatory Updates

AM Best recently conducted a presentation for the NAIC’s Cybersecurity Working Group on the cyber insurance market outlook and trends. In June, AM Best assigned a stable outlook to the cyber insurance segment, in large part due to 1) improved underwriting; 2) improved “cyber hygiene” from insureds; and 3) updated policy wording related to war exclusions and issues of “silent” cyber coverage. The reinsurance market for cyber has also improved. That said, increased competition has led to modest premium growth, and attacks continue to be more sophisticated over time. AM Best has issued a questionnaire to the top 60 cyber carriers to learn more about how companies are managing cyber risk.

The working group continues to work on a regulator notification portal to address the “one-to-many” notification issues that arise when an insurer must notify several departments in the event of a breach. A formal exposure will be presented to the working group and, ultimately, to interested parties.

In other news, the Colorado Division of Insurance held a stakeholder session in early September to discuss initial comments on the ACLI’s proposed quantitative testing regulation for life insurance business. The ACLI made the following clarifying points:

• The governance framework, as opposed to the testing process, should address whether testing differs for models that have a “human in the loop.”
  
• The approach laid out by the ACLI is not dependent upon how the model is built; it is intended to be prescriptive enough for the Division and flexible enough to accommodate unique carrier situations.
  
• The recommendation that the Division develop an FAQ document is to drive consistency on the use of the Bayesian Improved First Name Surname Geocoding (BIFSG) method for inferring race/ethnicity—the specifics and timeline for the FAQs would be up to the Division.

Jason Lapham (CO) addressed comments that some carriers may have too small a sample size in Colorado to conduct the kind of testing contemplated in both the Division’s and the ACLI’s proposals. Lapham and the Commissioner are aware of and sensitive to the problem and will address it as part of the process, which could include a potential exemption for certain carriers. Additional comments will be accepted on the ACLI draft until September 13.   Staff Contact - Sean McKenna

Privacy Updates

The California legislature passed five privacy-related bills before adjourning on August 31:

• AB 3048 requires businesses developing or maintaining a browser to include a setting that enables consumers to send an opt-out preference.
  
• AB 1949 amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to prohibit a business from collecting, selling, or sharing the personal information of children ages 13 to 17 without the child’s consent, or without a parent or guardian’s consent for children under the age of 13.
  
• SB 1223 defines and adds neural data as an element of sensitive personal information under the CCPA.
  
• AB 1008 amends the CCPA’s definition of “personal information” to include artificial intelligence systems capable of outputting personal information.
  
• AB 1824 amends the CCPA to require businesses to comply with a consumer’s opt-out request when a consumer’s personal information is transferred as an asset that is part of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other transaction.

California Governor Newsom has until September 30 to sign the bills into law or veto them. If the Governor does neither by September 30, that bill becomes law by operation of the state’s constitutional deadline.

In other news, the United States Federal Communications Commission has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding information-sharing and enforcement cooperation to share knowledge and expertise on regulatory policies and technical efforts related to applicable laws.

On August 29, the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Department of Health and Human Services published a #StopRansomware advisory about RansomHub—a ransomware group that has gained prominence after hosting data stolen from UnitedHealth Group in April. On September 4, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched a Human-Centered Cybersecurity Community of Interest (COI) as a space for researchers and practitioners to tackle human-centered cybersecurity issues. Also on September 4, U.S. House Republicans wrote a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris urging them to support legislation to limit the government’s purchases of consumer data from data brokers, citing concerns regarding data privacy and data breaches associated with the data broker ecosystem.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna