West Virginia Code 33-27-4 – Registration of insurers; information and form required; summary of changes to registration statement; materiality; reporting of dividends to shareholders; information to insurers; termination of registration; consolidate…
(a) Registration. — (1) Every insurer which is authorized to do business in this state and which is a member of an insurance holding company system shall register with the commissioner, except a foreign insurer subject to disclosure requirements and standards adopted by statute or regulation in the jurisdiction of its domicile which are substantially similar to those contained in this section, subsections (a), (b) and (c), section five of this article, and either subsection (d), section five of this article or has a provision such as the following: "Each registered insurer shall keep current the information required to be disclosed in its registration statement by reporting all material changes or additions within fifteen days after the end of the month in which it learns of each change or addition."
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 33-27-4
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Commissioner: means the West Virginia Insurance Commissioner, his or her deputies or the West Virginia offices of the Insurance Commissioner, as appropriate. See West Virginia Code 33-27-2
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Enterprise risk: means any activity, circumstance, event or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer that, if not remedied promptly, is likely to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole, including, but not limited to, anything that would cause the insurer's risk-based capital to fall into company action level, as set forth in article forty of this chapter, or would cause the insurer to be in hazardous financial condition, as set forth in article thirty-four of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 33-27-2
- Insurance holding company system: consists of two or more affiliated persons, one or more of which is an insurer. See West Virginia Code 33-27-2
- Insurer: means any person or persons or corporation, partnership or company authorized by the laws of this state to transact the business of insurance in this state, except that it shall not include agencies, authorities or instrumentalities of the United States, its possessions and territories, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia or a state or political subdivision of a state. See West Virginia Code 33-27-2
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: means an individual, a corporation, a limited liability company, a partnership, an association, a joint-stock company, a trust, an unincorporated organization, a depository institution or any similar entity or any combination of the foregoing acting in concert, but does not include any joint venture partnership exclusively engaged in owning, managing, leasing or developing real or tangible personal property. See West Virginia Code 33-27-2
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
(2) Any insurer which is subject to registration under this section shall register within fifteen days after it becomes subject to registration and annually thereafter by June 1 of each year for the previous calendar year, unless the commissioner for good cause shown extends the time for registration. The commissioner may require any authorized insurer which is a member of a holding company system which is not subject to registration under this section to furnish a copy of the registration statement, the summary described in subsection (c) of this section, or other information filed by such insurance company with the insurance regulatory authority of domiciliary jurisdiction.
(b) Information and form required. –- Every insurer subject to registration shall file a registration statement with the commissioner on a form and in a format prescribed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which shall contain the following current information:
(1) The capital structure, general financial condition, ownership and management of the insurer and any person controlling the insurer.
(2) The identity and relationship of every member of the insurance holding company system.
(3) The following agreements in force, relationships subsisting, and transactions currently outstanding or which have occurred during the last calendar year between such insurer and its affiliates:
(A) Loans, other investments, or purchases, sales or exchanges of securities of the affiliates by the insurer or of the insurer by its affiliates;
(B) Purchases, sales or exchanges of assets;
(C) Transactions not in the ordinary course of business;
(D) Guarantees or undertakings for the benefit of an affiliate which result in an actual contingent exposure of the insurer's assets to liability, other than insurance contracts entered into in the ordinary course of the insurer's business;
(E) All management and service contracts and all cost-sharing arrangements;
(F) All reinsurance agreements;
(G) Dividends and other distributions to shareholders; and
(H) Consolidated tax allocation statements.
(4) Any pledge of the insurer's stock, including stock of any subsidiary or controlling affiliate, for a loan made to any member of the insurance holding company system.
(5) If requested by the commissioner, the insurer shall include financial statements of or within an insurance holding company system, including all affiliates. Financial statements may include, but are not limited to, annual audited financial statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. An insurer required to file financial statements pursuant to this subdivision may satisfy the request by providing the commissioner with the most recently filed parent corporation financial statements that have been filed with the SEC.
(6) Other matters concerning transactions between registered insurers and any affiliates as may be included from time to time in any registration forms adopted or approved by the commissioner.
(7) Statements that the insurer's board of directors oversees corporate governance and internal controls and that the insurer's officers or senior management have approved, implemented, and continue to maintain and monitor corporate governance and internal control procedures.
(8) Any other information required by the commissioner by rule.
(c) Summary of changes to registration statement. — All registration statements shall contain a summary outlining all items in the current registration statement representing changes from the prior registration statement.
(d) Materiality. — Information need not be disclosed on the registration statement filed pursuant to subsection (b) of this section if such information is not material for the purpose of this section. Unless the commissioner by rule or order provides otherwise, sales, purchases, exchanges, loans or extensions of credit, or investments, involving one half of one percent or less of an insurer's admitted assets as of December 31, next preceding shall not be deemed material for purposes of this section.
(e) Reporting of dividends to shareholders. –- Subject to subsection (c), section five of this article, each registered insurer shall report to the commissioner all dividends and other distributions to shareholders within fifteen business days following the declaration thereof.
(f) Information to insurers. — Any person within an insurance holding company system subject to registration shall be required to provide complete and accurate information to an insurer, when such information is reasonably necessary to enable the insurer to comply with the provisions of this article.
(g) Termination of registration. — The commissioner shall terminate the registration of any insurer which demonstrates that it no longer is a member of an insurance holding company system.
(h) Consolidated filing. — The commissioner may require or allow two or more affiliated insurers subject to registration hereunder to file a consolidated registration statement or consolidated reports amending their consolidated registration statement or their individual registration statements.
(i) Alternative registration. –- The commissioner may allow an insurer which is authorized to do business in this state and which is a part of an insurance holding company system to register on behalf of any affiliated insurer which is required to register under subsection (a) of this section and to file all information and material required to be filed under this section.
(j) Exemptions. — The provisions of this section shall not apply to any insurer, information or transaction if and to the extent that the commissioner by rule or order shall exempt the same from the provisions of this section.
(k) Disclaimer. — Any person may file with the commissioner a disclaimer of affiliation with any authorized insurer or a disclaimer may be filed by the insurer or any member of an insurance holding company system. The disclaimer shall fully disclose all material relationships and bases for affiliation between the person and the insurer as well as the basis for disclaiming such affiliation. A disclaimer of affiliation shall be deemed to have been granted unless the commissioner, within thirty days following receipt of a complete disclaimer, notifies the filing party the disclaimer is disallowed. In the event of disallowance, the disclaiming party may request an administrative hearing, which shall be granted, and the commissioner shall disallow such a disclaimer only after furnishing all parties in interest with notice and opportunity to be heard and after making specific findings of fact to support such disallowance. The disclaiming party shall be relieved of its duty to register under this section if approval of the disclaimer has been granted by the commissioner, or if the disclaimer is deemed to have been approved. (l) Enterprise Risk Filing. –- The ultimate controlling person of every insurer subject to registration shall also file an annual enterprise risk report. The report shall, to the best of the ultimate controlling person's knowledge and belief, identify the material risks within the insurance holding company system that could pose enterprise risk to the insurer. The report shall be filed with the lead state commissioner of the insurance holding company system as determined by the procedures within the Financial Analysis Handbook adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
(m) Violations. –- The failure to file a registration statement or enterprise risk filing thereto required by this section within the time specified for such filing shall be a violation of this section.