A key ratings service said it “views positively” the draft framework proposed by state insurance commissioners for evaluating reserves of universal life products with secondary guarantees.

A group of six states reached a $40 million “landmark” settlement today (April 23) with nine MetLife insurance companies that might return about $600 million to consumers nationwide.

The number of people covered by Medicaid managed-care programs increased 8% in 2010, according to new research from a Kennebunk, Maine, firm.

Somewhere between the time I wrote March 22 piece on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the group of state insurance regulators, (NAIC) and the time it was posted, the NAIC resolved one of the issues I raised: its identity.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the organization representing each state’s insurance department, is a worthwhile venture because it serves to create uniformity in the regulation of insurance. Some moan that uniformity by a national trade association (more on that in a minute) is national insurance regulation, which is no better than federal regulation. I beg to differ.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed into a law a bill enabling the state insurance regulators to fight false certificates of insurance and those who request them.

MetLife, because of its ownership of MetLife Bank, an online retail unit, was forced to submit to the Federal Reserve’s stress testing and failed, possibly because it was “unfairly penalized” by regulators.

An insurance association member questioned a “closed door” meeting among consumers groups and a National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) joint working group on automobile insurance.

A congressman from California is asking the organization representing state insurance commissioners to explain what it meant last summer when it said it wanted to “to brand itself as a ‘standard-setting organization.”

A report expected from the Federal Insurance Office later this month, addressing how to modernize and improve insurance regulation, could significantly affect the insurance industry, according to an industry regulatory expert.