By Wise                                               H.B. No. 2193

         75R5691 SAW-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the trust fund requirement for alien surplus lines

 1-3     insurers.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 8(d), Article 1.14-2, Insurance Code, is

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (d)  In addition to meeting the minimum capital and surplus

 1-8     requirements provided by this section, an alien insurer must

 1-9     provide evidence that it maintains in the United States an

1-10     irrevocable trust fund in a Federal Reserve System member bank in

1-11     an amount not less than $5.4 [$1.5] million for the protection of

1-12     all its policyholders in the United States and that the trust fund

1-13     consists of cash, securities, letters of credit, or investments of

1-14     substantially the same character and quality as those that are

1-15     eligible investments for the capital and statutory reserves of

1-16     authorized insurers licensed to write like kinds and classes of

1-17     insurance in this state.

1-18           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-19           SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to surplus lines insurance

1-20     placed with an insurer on or after September 1, 1997.  Surplus

1-21     lines insurance placed with an insurer before September 1, 1997, is

1-22     governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective

1-23     date of this Act and that law is continued in effect for that

1-24     purpose.

 2-1           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.