Insurance.com: Notes : Rogers

State Regulation of a Boundryless Information Superhighway

Richard Rogers, Esq.

Deputy Director, Illinois Department of Insurance

Dick Rogers opened with his views on the commonly raised question about needs for new laws to deal with issues of the Internet. He saw some areas in which legislative change was necessary, particularly in the area of interstate sales, to prevent current laws from becoming an obstacle to the competition made more possible by the Net. But overall, he observed that most regulators did not see the need for separate regulation of the Net.

He thought that the Internet was a good thing for consumers, enabling consumers to be better educated, to communicate among themselves and exchange information with regulators. The ease and speed of the Net also allows regulators to reach the whole population and to supervise insurers more effectively.

Dep. Rogers reported on his observations in meetings with the NAIC, that the Clinton Administration expressed great concern over privacy and content control on the Net, and the need to act if private industry did not.

He encouraged insurers to establish a meaningful presence on the Net, and to monitor their own activities in order to stay above reproach.

He urged close study of the NAIC Report on Marketing Insurance on the Internet, reminded participants that banks and stock brokers already have significant operations on the Net, and that they were capable of offering competition to traditional insurers if they saw it likely to be profitable. He described the situation of ignoring the Net as "like ignoring the motor at the beginning of the industrial age."