DFS-29-12-00004-AA Consolidation of the New York State Insurance and Banking Departments into a New Department of Financial Services

3/20/13 N.Y. St. Reg. DFS-29-12-00004-AA

NEW YORK STATE REGISTER

VOLUME XXXV, ISSUE 12

March 20, 2013

RULE MAKING ACTIVITIES

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

AMENDED NOTICE OF ADOPTION

 

I.D No. DFS-29-12-00004-AA

Filing No. 233

Filing Date. Feb. 27, 2013

Effective Date. Apr. 01, 2013

Consolidation of the New York State Insurance and Banking Departments into a New Department of Financial Services

PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following action:

Action taken:

Amendment of Parts 9 (Regulation 46), 216 (Regulation 64), 218 (Regulation 90), 241 (Regulation 71) and Subpart 65-3 (Regulation 68-C) of Title 11 NYCRR.

Amended action:

This action amends the rule that was filed with the Secretary of State on February 6, 2013, to be effective March 1, 2013, File No. 00173. The notice of adoption, I.D. No. DFS-29-12-00004-A, was published in the February 27, 2013 issue of the State Register.

Statutory authority:

Financial Services Law, sections 202 and 302; and Insurance Law, section 301

Subject:

Consolidation of the New York State Insurance and Banking Departments into a new Department of Financial Services.

Purpose:

To revise hyperlinks and references that are outdated due to the consolidation of the Insurance and Banking Departments.

Text of amended rule:

Section 9.1 is amended as follows:

Section 9.1. Distribution and sale of publications of the [Insurance] Department of Financial Services

(a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section, a fee shall be charged in accordance with the itemized schedule attached hereto (see Appendix 6) for any blank, report, pamphlet, document or other publication of the [Insurance] Department furnished or distributed to the public. Many of the current year publications listed in Appendix 6 are also available electronically ([with] at no charge) through the [Insurance] Department's Web site located at [http://www.ins.state.ny.us/mailing.htm] http://www.dfs.ny.gov/reportpub/dfs_reportpub.htm.

(b) No fee shall be charged for furnishing a report or other document to the Governor, the Legislature, any of the State departments or representatives of the press. The Director of the Budget may prescribe other cases in which no fee shall be charged.

(c) No charge shall be made for blank forms, reports, pamphlets and other printed documents necessary or proper in the conduct of the official business of the [Insurance] Department.

Section 65-3 is amended as follows:

NYS Form NF-10 to Appendix 13 is repealed and a new NYS Form NF-10 to Appendix 13 is added.

Section 216.6(h) is amended as follows:

(h) Any notice rejecting any element of a claim involving personal property insurance shall contain the identity and the claims processing address of the insurer, the insured's policy number, the claim number, and the following statement prominently set [out] forth:

“Should you wish to take this matter up with the New York State [Insurance] Department of Financial Services, you may file with the Department either on its website at [www.ins.state.ny.us/complhow.htm] http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm or you may write to or visit the Consumer [Services Bureau] Assistance Unit, Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division, New York State [Insurance] Department of Financial Services, at: 25 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10004; One Commerce Plaza, Albany, NY 12257; [200 Old Country Road, Suite 340] 163B Mineola Boulevard, Mineola, NY 11501; or Walter J. Mahoney Office Building, 65 Court Street, Buffalo, NY 14202.”

Section 216.7(d) is amended as follows:

(d) Unreasonable delay.

(1) Unless clear justification exists, no more than 20 percent of a representative sample of the physical damage claims selected by [Insurance] Department of Financial Services examiners at any office or offices of the insurer shall have a payment period in excess of 30 calendar days. A payment period is the period between the date of receipt of notice of loss by the insurer and:

(i) the date the settlement check is mailed; or

(ii) the date on which the damaged motor vehicle is replaced by the insurer.

If an insurer is in violation of this overall standard, then each such claim in excess of 30 calendar days may be treated as a separate violation.

(2) If any element of a physical damage claim remains unresolved more than 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of notice by the insurer, the insurer shall provide the insured with a written explanation of the specific reasons for delay in the claim settlement. Unless the matter is in litigation, an updated letter of explanation shall be sent every 30 calendar days thereafter until all elements of the claim are either honored or rejected.

(3) Any letter of explanation or rejection of any element of a claim shall contain the identity and claims processing address of the insurer, the insured's policy number, the claim number and the following statement, prominently set [out] forth:

“Should you wish to take this matter up with the New York State [Insurance] Department of Financial Services, you may file with the Department either on its website at [www.ins.state.ny.us/complhow.htm] http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm or you may write to or visit the Consumer [Services Bureau] Assistance Unit, Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division, New York State [Insurance] Department of Financial Services, at: 25 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10004; One Commerce Plaza, Albany, NY 12257; [200 Old Country Road, Suite 340] 163B Mineola Boulevard, Mineola, NY 11501; or Walter J. Mahoney Office Building, 65 Court Street, Buffalo, NY 14202.”

Section 218.5(a) is amended as follows:

(a) The following notice shall be clearly and prominently set out in boldface type on the front (except that the company name, company representative, company address and company phone number may be stamped, or typed in the appropriate place in the notice), so that it draws the reader's attention on all notices of refusal to issue, cancellation or nonrenewal, except where the cancellation is for nonpayment of premium; and on all notices of termination of agents' and brokers' contracts or accounts, which are subject to this Part:

If you have any questions in regard to this termination, please contact this company's representative at (company phone number, name of company representative, company address). The New York Insurance Law prohibits insurers from engaging in redlining practices based upon geographic location of the risk or the producer. If you have reason to believe that we have acted in violation of such law, you may file your complaint with the Department either on its website at [www.ins.state.ny.us/complhow.htm] http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm or by writing to the State of New York [Insurance] Department of Financial Services, Consumer [Services Bureau] Assistance Unit, Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division, at either 25 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10004 or One Commerce Plaza, Albany, NY 12257.

Section 241.2(a) is amended as follows:

(a) Requests for access to records available to the public under the Insurance Law and the Freedom of Information Law shall be made to the records access officers in the office of general counsel in the Albany or New York City office of the department. Such request for access shall be made on a form prescribed by the department for such purpose, which may be obtained from the department's Public Affairs Bureau [of Public Affairs and Research] in Albany or in New York City, or from the department's web site at [www.ins.state.ny.us] http://www.dfs.ny.gov/legal/foil.htm.

Text of amended rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:

Sally Geisel, NYS Department of Financial Services, 25 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10004, [phone], email: [e-mail]

Revised Regulatory Impact Statement, Revised Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, Revised Rural Area Flexibility Analysis, Revised Job Impact Statement

The amendment to the adopted rule merely changes the effective date of the rule from March 1, 2013 to April 1, 2013, which effectuates no change to the text of the rule or the Regulatory Impact Statement, Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, Rural Area Flexibility Analysis and Job Impact Statement.

Assessment of Public Comment

After providing notice of adoption of amendments to multiple Parts of 11 NYCRR by publication in the New York State Register, but prior to the rule’s effective date, the Department received a comment from a trade association for insurers (“Association”) stating that “until regulations are officially promulgated, companies do not initiate system/IT orders in case there are revisions or amendments to the regulation. The regulations take effect March 1 (two weeks) and companies just received notice today. Companies have expressed concern regarding the changes to the NF-10 form. Specifically if the newly adopted form is not utilized by March 1, these no-fault denial of claim forms may be challenged or considered invalid.” The Association asked the Department to change the effective date of the regulation from March 1, 2013 to April 1, 2013.

To ensure that insurers have sufficient time to update their systems and make use of the revised NF-10 form, the Department is extending the date of the rule to April 1, 2013.