FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NAIC AND NIPR ANNOUNCE TRANSACTION PROCESSING ON A FAST TRACK

SAN DIEGO (March 14, 2009) - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and its affiliate, National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR), today announced a unique partnership that streamlines the licensing process using new instantaneous capabilities.

"Since its inception, NIPR has proven its ability to provide tools that allow insurance regulators and the industry to save time and money by reducing their reliance on time-consuming processes," said NAIC President and New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny. "This new rapid-response function is yet another example of how the states are leading the way to a more streamlined, fully electronic way of doing business."

When used in conjunction with the NAIC's State Based Systems (SBS) product suite, all NIPR licensing transactions - including original and renewal applications, appointments and terminations, and address change requests - can be submitted to an SBS state almost immediately, allowing the state to process licensing requests as they are submitted. Once the transaction is approved by the state, the SBS system will send the approval notification back to NIPR using real-time processing and NIPR will immediately notify the customer. For a transaction that meets all processing requirements, with no additional information required, the entire transaction - including submission, review, approval and notification - can be completed in as little as two minutes. The previous process could take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.

"We are pleased to deploy this exciting new product to states that are part of the SBS family," said Alaska Insurance Director Linda Hall, who also serves as president of the NIPR Board of Directors and chair of the NAIC Producer Licensing Task Force. "SBS, through its membership-driven uniformity initiatives, makes NIPR more efficient by providing a tool suite that is consistent from state to state."

SBS is the solution of choice in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.

For more information, visit www.statebasedsystems.com.