Arizona now joins the list of states utilizing State Based Systems (SBS), an electronic filing tool created to increase efficiency in the regulatory functions of members that belong to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
SBS is owned by the NAIC and enhanced in partnership with state insurance departments to support their regulatory functions. Through NAIC, state insurance regulators establish standards and best practices, conduct peer review and coordinate their regulatory oversight. NAIC is governed by the chief insurance regulators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.
Specifically, NAIC members use SBS for a variety of services, such as licensing, continuing education tracking, consumer services, enforcement, fraud reporting, exam tracking and revenue management. The goal for SBS is to enable state insurance departments to more efficiently and effectively process license applications, for instance, or renewals, complaints and enforcement actions “with a minimum of effort and remain compliant with national uniformity initiatives,” NAIC said.
As the number of NAIC members using SBS increases, the software is expected to become increasingly flexible and efficient, further improving how it fully supports consumer-protection initiatives, according to NAIC.
“SBS supports so many business areas allowing the majority of our staff to now accomplish their work using a single, fully integrated platform,” Leslie R. Hess, Arizona’s interim director, said in an April 19 statement.
Arizona is the 27th jurisdiction to fully implement SBS and joins: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Limited SBS services also are licensed by Virginia.