38.2-5508 - Confidentiality; prohibition on announcements; prohibition on use in ratemaking.
§ 38.2-5508. Confidentiality; prohibition on announcements; prohibition onuse in ratemaking.
A. All RBC Plans and RBC Reports, to the extent the information therein isnot required to be set forth in a publicly available annual statementschedule, which are filed with the Commission with respect to any domesticlicensee or foreign licensee, constitute information that might be damagingto the licensee if made available to its competitors, and therefore shall bekept confidential by the Commission. This information shall not be madepublic nor shall it be subject to subpoena, other than by the Commission andthen only for the purpose of enforcement actions taken by the Commissionpursuant to this Act or any other provision of the insurance laws of thisCommonwealth; however, the Commission may at its discretion disclose suchconfidential information to (i) a regulatory official of any state orcountry; (ii) the NAIC, its affiliate or its subsidiary; or (iii) alaw-enforcement authority of any state or country. Any such disclosure by theCommission shall not constitute a waiver of confidentiality of such plans,reports, and information. As used in this subsection, RBC Reports and RBCPlans shall include the results or report of any examination or analysis of alicensee performed by the Commission pursuant to the provisions of this Actor by the insurance regulatory officials of another state pursuant to theprovisions of a substantially similar risk-based capital statute.
B. The comparison of a licensee's Total Adjusted Capital to any of its RBCLevels is a regulatory tool which may indicate the need for possiblecorrective action with respect to the licensee, and is not intended as ameans to rank licensees generally. Therefore, except as otherwise requiredunder the provisions of this Act, the making, publishing, disseminating,circulating or placing before the public, or causing, directly or indirectlyto be made, published, disseminated, circulated or placed before the public,in a newspaper, magazine or other publication, or in the form of a notice,circular, pamphlet, letter or poster, or over any radio or televisionstation, or in any other way, an advertisement, announcement or statementcontaining an assertion, representation or statement ranking any licenseerelative to other licensees solely on the basis of comparisons between TotalAdjusted Capital and RBC Levels or any component derived in the calculationof RBC Levels, by any licensee, agent, broker or other person engaged in anymanner in the insurance business would be misleading and is thereforeprohibited. If any materially false statement comparing a licensee's TotalAdjusted Capital to its RBC Levels, or any of them, or a misleadingcomparison of any other amount to the licensee's RBC Levels is published inany written publication and the licensee is able to demonstrate to theCommission with substantial proof the falsity or misleading nature of suchstatement, as the case may be, then the licensee may publish an announcementin a written publication if the sole purpose of the announcement is to rebutthe materially false or misleading statement.
C. RBC Instructions, RBC Reports, Adjusted RBC Reports, RBC Plans and RevisedRBC Plans are intended solely for use by the Commission in monitoring thesolvency of licensees and the need for possible corrective action withrespect to licensees and shall not be used by the Commission for ratemakingnor considered or introduced as evidence in any rate proceeding nor used bythe Commission to calculate or derive any elements of an appropriate premiumlevel or rate of return for any line of insurance which a licensee or anyaffiliate is authorized to write.
(1995, c. 789; 2000, c. 47; 2001, c. 519.)