New York State Insurance Department and Thailand’s Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) signed a memorandum of understanding that enables cooperation on insurance-related issues, the latest in a string of cooperative agreements with foreign country’s insurance regulators.

Chantra Purnariksha and Kermitt J. Brooks

The pact binds the two offices so that they may help each other fulfill their regulatory mandates and functions by exchanging information concerning supervisory and regulatory responsibilities. Each regulator may request and provide information or assistance from the other about insurance activities.

“This agreement between Thailand and New York is important because both of our regulatory organizations share a strong commitment to safeguarding policyholders by ensuring the continued sound, prudent conduct of insurer financial obligations,” said Kermitt J. Brooks, acting superintendent for NYSID. “This agreement formalizes the efforts of our two organizations to work together, consistent with the G20 nations’ request for regulators to monitor global insurance operations more closely.”

Chantra Purnariksha, secretary-general for OIC, said the agreement between the two offices is a “timely response” to worldwide economic crisis.

“The global financial turmoil signifies the need for properly functioning prudential and supervisory systems as well as the need for increased supervisory cooperation,” she said.  “It represents both parties’ joint efforts to cooperate and assist each other and will bring about mutual benefits and improved supervision of the insurance industry.”

New York regulators also have coordinated with their counterparts in the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Bermuda, France and Macau, and are pursuing agreements with other regulatory authorities, according to the department.