HB17-1231 Summary

• Reorganizes Colorado insurance statutes governing the Commissioner of Insurance's authority to examine insurance companies, creating a new Part 3 focused on "Market Conduct" surveillance separate from financial examinations.

• Establishes procedures for market conduct surveillance including correspondence, interviews, interrogatories, and examinations with requirements for preexamination and predraft conferences between the Division and examined companies.

• Requires examined companies to pay reasonable fees and expenses for market conduct surveillance; allows companies to contest fees and permits the Commissioner to use contract examiners when lacking internal expertise under specified criteria.

• Implements confidentiality protections for market conduct surveillance documents and working papers while allowing the Commissioner to share information with other state and federal regulatory agencies and NAIC if recipients agree to maintain confidentiality.

• Authorizes the Commissioner to impose penalties up to $3,000 per violation (up to $30,000 aggregate) for violations discovered during market conduct surveillance, with enhanced penalties up to $30,000 per violation ($200,000 annual aggregate) if the company knew or should have known of violations.